Over the last one month, I observe a whole slew of procedures, policies, and dictats, emerging from New Delhi, that is improving and facilitating the smooth operations at major airports all over India.

Industry chambers had proposed most of these measures almost 5 years ago, to the Government. While the Airports Authority of India (AAI) was the airport operator, these proposals were deemed "too difficult" to implement. Now, when private operators are taking over the major airports, these proposals have suddenly become policy.

I am not complaining. Having made some of the proposals myself, I am happy. As the saying goes "Better late than never".

I am just intrigued at the timing of implementation, and I hope we all keep these in mind when passing judgement in the future.

Some of the proposals that are coming through :

SLA's with nodal agencies
Within an airport passenger terminal itself, there are many statutory agencies involved, and I am not covering cargo or air traffic control operations. As passengers we do not appreciate the nightmarish effort required in co-ordinating the procedural bureaucracy. No wonder AAI staffers on the ground were such a demotivated lot.

• The terminal operator AAI or a private company like GMR, GVK, BIAL etc.
• Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) for terminal and airside security, under the control of the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS)
  
• Local Police for security and traffic management outside the terminal
• Customs, who incidentally, are responsible for providing and operating the international incoming baggage XRay machine
• Immigration
  
• Airline handling agents who do the registered baggage X-Ray, loading, unloading etc.

In 2005, after a year long study on all aspects of the airport, sitting many a night, up to 3am, a group of qualified members of the Bangalore Chamber of Industry and Commerce (BCIC), including myself and recommended that these agencies must provide and meet Service Level Commitments/Agreements. While our proposal took time, I must thank the Honourable Minister Shri Praful Patel for immediately committing Crores of rupees for the expansion of the terminal at HAL, which allowed Bangalore to grow to the third largest airport in India.

Integrated Cargo facilities and cargo village
Another departure to the positive.

We do not appreciate the significance that air cargo plays in our daily lives. Over 40% of India's total industrial output travels by air. In case of Bangalore, due to the nature of our industry (high tech, precision engineering, aviation, flowers, fruit, garments, bio/medical, etc.) the figure is 50% (over Rs. 500 Billion).

Airbus is predicting a 17%+ annual growth rate in the domestic air cargo business for the next 20 years. India will purchase more freighter aircraft than passenger aircraft between 2008 and 2027.

Till date, no Indian airport allowed a cargo village, which provides offices and facilities for the hundreds of Cargo and Customs agents, inside an airport. Even authorities at BIAL admitted that they had totally overlooked this aspect. Thankfully they are making fire-fighting efforts, and a cargo village should be up in the next 18 months.

Reduced air space separation
The current separation is proposed to be reduced from the current 5 nautical miles (nm) to 3 nm. This is expected increase runway capacity from 30 flights per hour to about 45 flights per hour, but I will not hold my breath.

To achieve the goal will entail an complete change in the thinking and attitude of both, air traffic control and by pilots. Pilots will need to react instantly to ATC instructions without demur, and controllers will need to exercise their authority, something, both, just do not do, at present.

Change for the better is always welcome, and while private airport operators at MIAL, DIAL, RGIA, and BIAL will take full advantage, for AAI to follow suit, it must jettison the yoke of its own bureaucracy i.e. the Ministry of Civil Aviation. Just as DOT was corporatised in to BSNL, the time has come for AAI as well. But that is for another story......

Visa on Arrival on the anvil for 18 countries MoT working closely with MHA to permit Visa on Arrival By Kanika Mehta | New Delhi

The Ministry of Tourism (MoT) is working at obtaining Visa on Arrival for 18 countries and is currently in deliberations with the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) for the same. This is a first-time initiative by the MoT to relax the visa process with the main objective of increasing tourism prospects in the country. These 18 countries have already received long-term visa permission with multiple entry facility and validity for five years. The long-term visa was granted by the MoT earlier to encourage tourism prospects between these nations. Talking to TravelBiz Monitor, Sanjay Kothari, Additional Director General, Ministry of Tourism mentioned, “The Ministry is working at obtaining Visa on Arrival for the nations which have already been granted the long-term visa facility. We are currently in talks with the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to get the approval for the same. Our objective is to achieve some kind of relaxation in the Visa process and give the tourism segment a boost.” He further maintained that though MoT is primarily looking forward for Visa on Arrival for these 18 countries, but if the Home Ministry decides to grant long-duration visas for more countries or Visa on Arrival scheme for other countries, then it would be a welcome move. “The goal is to increase tourism receipts and flow of tourists. With relaxations like this, the whole procedure of traveling becomes easier and smoother. The `Incredible India’ campaign will also be supported by this move. We will be able to lure more inbound tourists to the country and hence increase revenue generated through tourism,” added Kothari. Inbound tourists in India nearly touched the five million mark in 2007, as compared to the 4.45 million inbound tourists in 2006 registering a growth of over 12 per cent. With the proposed move, MoT is expecting a growth in arrivals.

Thanks to the repeated delays at the BIAL promoted Bengaluru International Airport (BIA), a crisis is brewing at HAL airport in Bangalore; a crisis which can turn ugly at any moment.

Expecting the new airport to open on March 30th, most operators at HAL airport lost staff to the new operators at BIA. Ground and ramp handling (ladders/aero-bridges, baggage loading, drivers, tractors, etc.) and terminal handling (maintenance and upkeep) are the most affected. The few remaining staff, supplemented by some temporary staff, are unable to cope with demands.

Many airlines' operations executives have told me that it is just a matter of time before "minor incidents" now occurring on a daily basis, will explode in to a "major accident".

Even the highly efficient Air Traffic Control at HAL is suffering the recent retirement of Mr. S.R. Iyer, one of, if not, the senior-most air traffic controllers in India. The existing ATC team is very capable, but the loss of Mr. Iyer, has affected flight operations efficiency, resulting in major delays during peak hours.

The immediate question is why not hire more people. The simple answer is uncertainty. The handling agents at HAL are not the same as at BIA. No person wants to work at an airport that is going to close.

The Ministry of Civil Aviation is "re-negotiating" keeping HAL airport open for "sub 80 seater aircraft" (ATRs and Embraer) for short haul flights. This proposal is commercially and operationally unviable for both the airlines and HAL/AAI, and is bound to be rejected by them, even if BIAL agrees.

The shareholders of BIAL, which include the Governments of India and Karnataka, have the ability to advance the opening date of the BIA, but for that, they need to place the needs of Bangalore, above the needs of the political establishment, and that is a tough call.

The last few days have brought good news for the BIAL consortium, the promoters of the new Bengaluru International Airport (BIA).

Two weeks ago, the new Greenfield airports policy, approved by the Cabinet of Ministers, Government of India, specifically protects the monopoly of both BIA and Hyderabad's Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA). No new airport will be allowed to be constructed within a radius of 150km (93.75 miles).

Two days ago, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), has given its technical clearances to BIA to commence operations. The opening date is now in the hands of the politicians, and is scheduled for May 29, 2008. One can only hope that politics does not rear its ugly head and force a further delay in the opening of the new airport.

Editorial: Flights of ad hocism
Business Standard / New Delhi May 05, 2008

The ad hoc nature of government policy towards airports is no longer a joke, since it has played havoc with both passengers who have to traverse large distances, and those who have invested in new airports on the basis of contractual commitments. A similar ad hoc attitude seems to prevail when deciding which airline will be allowed to fly on international routes, and when it comes to the buying and leasing of aircraft for Air-India, which (by one account) is now unable to pay salaries as a consequence of having exceeding all rational limits while taking loans for working capital. And it goes without saying that there was an ad hoc approach implicit in making the key decisions on airport charges and user fees without first putting in place a regulator for civil aviation.

It was decided years ago that the old airports at Hyderabad and Bangalore would be shut down as soon as the new ones became operational. That was part of a policy which said that new airports would not be permitted within 150 km of an existing one. Now the government seems to be having second thoughts, and the proposition has been put to Bangalore International Airport Ltd (BIAL), which has built the new airport outside the city, that low-cost carriers should continue to use the existing airport on the other side of town. And the 150-km rule may be junked in order to allow the setting up of a new airport, on the mainland south of Mumbai. It does not help that contracts with the companies that are building new airports in the southern cities mention the shutting down of existing airports as a pre-condition.

The re-think seems to be the result of a combination of forces. One is the difficulty that passengers face in reaching distant new airports in both Bangalore and Hyderabad when the ground transport links are not satisfactory. A second issue has been the high user charges being imposed by the new airports, charges which initially threatened to be more than the price of a short-haul ticket on a low-cost carrier, and which were therefore revised in another ad hoc exercise once a storm built up on the issue. The third is the pressure (part political and part commercial) to allow second airports to be built for both Mumbai and New Delhi, even before the revamping and expansion of the existing airports is complete.

The stipulation of a minimum distance works well in some contexts (it has served Kerala well, for instance, as its main airports are quite far apart at Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode). It may not make sense for metropolitan areas like Mumbai and Delhi, which themselves stretch across 50 km or more, and which therefore have provided for the possibility of second airports. And looking at the way that air traffic is growing, the 150-km limit may seem excessive in the future when the better choice might well be to allow more airports of medium capacity at shorter distances — it would certainly be more convenient for passengers than everyone trudging to one mega-facility that accommodates (say) 50 million or 75 million passengers annually. When the objective conditions suggest that a re-think is called for, it makes sense that it be done coherently, with proper consideration of all the issues and the interests of all affected parties borne in mind. Is that too much to hope for, when an ad hoc approach has ruled for so long?

According to the Financial Times, "The skies over Mumbai are set to face a congestion crisis early next decade with the Indian financial capital's existing international airport likely to be overloaded with passengers even after a $2.3bn expansion is completed, according to the city airport's top executive."

"GV Sanjay Reddy, managing director of Mumbai International Airport, told the Financial Times, would be that if current passenger trends continued, the city's airport would be overwhelmed. "The city is going to be in trouble," he said."

Bangalore needs to be apprehensive of the situation in Mumbai, as it is a precursor to what will happen in Bangalore.

As per BIAL's own data, they are fully booked during peak hours, and all additional expansion will only be permitted in non-peak hours, the same situation as HAL airport is right now. If BIAL chooses to follow IATA guidelines of 550 flights maximum per day on a single runway, a fact confirmed by Mumbai airport, (incidentally, India's largest and most efficient airport in terms of runway operations), Bengaluru International Airport (BIA), has only 22% expansion capability. BIAL does not intend to complete a new runway before 2013, so Bangalore will have to choke its economic growth to satisfy its contract with BIAL.

"BIA is just a glitzy terminal, otherwise it is almost the same as HAL airport". This is what hands-on aero-operations people have told me after their inspection at BIA.

Bangalore and BIAL are placing an enormous amount of trust in each other. Unfortunately in this partnership the flow of complete information seems to be only in one direction. If BIAL management can provide Bangalore with comprehensive and detailed answers to some very simple questions, may be they can allay fears of capacity.

From opening date onwards, projected till the year 2018, BIAL is requested to provide detailed figures for :

1. How many flights per hour during peak hours 6am - 10am and 6pm - 8pm?
2. How many passengers per hour during peak hours 6am - 10am and 6pm - 8pm?
3. How many flights a day?
4. How many passengers per day?
5. How many flights a year?
6. How many passengers per year?
7. How many tons of cargo per year?
8. Projected growth rate year on year for each year, international and domestic, passengers and freight ?

Write to BIAL and ask them for the answers. Their contact details are at this web page. Their e-mail address is contact@bialairport.com.