Aviation industry needs regulatory re-think: Experts

With a new government having come to power, there are hopes that the languishing airline industry in India will see better days. Aviation experts suggest that there is  need to take a serious look at the regulations governing the sector. The Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA)  exercises sweeping control without taking the airlines' interests into consideration, they feel. A recent example is that of the DGCA summoning the recently launched AirAsia India's management over the issue of unbundling of fares, a practice that is common across the globe.

The aviation sector is generally believed to be over-regulated. There is the The Aircraft Act (1934) along with Indian Aircraft Rules (1937). These ancient acts do not take into account the leaps that the industry has taken. There is excessive concentration of power in the Director General of Civil Aviation or the DGCA through which the Central government exercises its authority.


Experts like Peeyush Naidu, Director at Deloitte in India holds that setting up of a Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) replacing the DGCA by enacting new legislation would be a key milestone. In fact this was one of the major civil aviation reforms that the UPA government initiated but left unfinished.
 Read news in full 4/06/14 Manisha Singhal/Business Today