Indian aviation is facing a severe crisis with domestic airlines collectively losing $2 billion last fiscal on top of $3.5 billion losses of previous three financial years. The government has made special accomodations for two of the big airlines in the country to prevent its otherwise certain shutdown. There are rising fears about such airlines cutting costs on safety expenses and their ability to maintain flight schedule because of discontent among unpaid-for-months employees.

The sudden crash of the great Indian aviation shows the government's overall policies for aviation need serious rethink. While the aviation ministry was quick to rebut the flaws in policy pointed out by the country's only profitable airline, it must at least pay attention to similar things said by International Air Transport Association ( IATA) chief Tony Tyler on Wednesday.

Tyler clearly stated "India's aviation sector is in a multi-faceted crisis... this must be resolved with coordinated public policies... Kingfisher's situation is dire. And, Air India is on government-provided life-support of financial bailouts and other forms of protection." The problems highlighted were high operating costs due to factors like high taxes on jet fuel and steep infrastructure fees and crisis at Air India.

"In the case of Air India, long-term state-aid has not rehabilitated the business and in the meantime it is having a destructive impact on the market. Governments must lay the foundations for fair competition... even with government commitments approaching $6 billion (for AI), we are still waiting to be proven wrong," Tyler said. He added that government aid to AI without clear accountability and result "could well send the whole sector into intensive care."

The global aviation body chief had summed up by saying: "Increasing access to capital, building infrastructure, ensuring a cost-efficient operating structure and creating a tax regime focused on growth form the basis of an agenda to improve the competitiveness of Indian aviation..."

IndiGo chief Rahul Bhatia had said the government was 'tinkering' with aviation policies for "a select few". Speaking in Kolkata last week, he had said: "We probably are a zero debt company, not owing money to anybody, and pitched against competition, which gets sop after sop... what we didn't know and regret is the government's relentless effort to keep inefficient private operators in business," he had said in an indirect reference to AI and Kingfisher.

Like Tyler, Bhatia called for an end to subsidizing inefficient airlines or putting them on ventilator. "In US an FA ( federal aviation administrator) is equivalent to the director general of civil aviation. If they were confronted with a situation where the crew is not paid for months, be it pilots or technical staff, I guarantee they would shut the airline on safety grounds," Bhatia had said while giving the example of how the situation would have been dealt in a fair and level-playing field. IATA's Tyler had himself sought a similar non-partisan atmosphere for Indian players as per a report in the TOI.

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