Indian Minister for Civil Aviation sees aviation sector "turning for the better"
Indian Minister for Civil Aviation, Praful Patel, stated (29-Dec-2009) the aviation sector is "turning for the better" and expressed that the "worst is over" following a rebound in traffic for Oct-2009. The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) released highlights for the India aviation sector in 2009:
- Amendments of air services agreements (ASAs) with Qatar, France, the Netherlands, Nepal, Portugal, Kenya, Azerbaijan and Czech Republic
- Implementation of India-EU Horizontal Agreement: ASAs on co-operative marketing arrangements, liberalisation for all cargo services, inter-modal services and routing flexibility with the UK, Poland, Portugal, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Finland, France and Czech Republic;
- Indian Government, on 17-Feb-2009, gave post-facto approval to the formation of JV between National Aviation Company of India Limited (NACIL) and Singapore Air Terminal Services (SATS) for cargo handling and ground handling services.
- The Carriage by Air (Amendment) Bill 2008 stands amended by the Parliament after it was passed by the Rajya Sabha on 19-Feb-2009;
- India found fully compliant with international safety standards by an audit done by the USA's Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to retain current Category I status under FAA IASA;
- Aviation Regulations Advisory Panel (ARAP) constituted by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on 03-Sep-2009, covering areas including airworthiness, flight operations, flight safety, licensing of personnel, air transport services, aerodrome and air navigation services. [more]
Ministry of Civil Aviation: "2009 has been an eventful and tumultuous year for the Civil Aviation Sector worldwide. We can draw satisfaction from the fact that the worst is over. Things are turning for the better, which is borne out by the rebound in air traffic figures from October'09 onwards. I sincerely hope that things will stabilise in 2010 and flying will once again be the preferred choice of travel for people," Praful Patel, Minister for Civil Aviation. Source: Ministry of Civil Aviation, 29-Dec-2009.