The activities of civil aviation are broadly divided into three categories :
3. Regulatory--Developmental :
The liberalisation process took off in April 1990, with the Cargo Open Skies Policy, which allowed international airlines to operate cargo flights without any restrictions and to charge rates without any reference to the DGCA. This benefitted exporters with timely availability of capacity and a greater choice of rates.
The Air Corporation Act 1953, was repealed on March 1, 1994 and this ended the monopoly of Indian Airlines, Air India and Vayudoot over the scheduled air transport services. 6 private corporations, who were till then operating as air taxi operators, have since been granted scheduled airline status. In addition, 19 air taxi operators have been given permit for charter/non-scheduled air transport services. The competitive environment in the domestic services has been existent, effectively, since April 1993. By November 1995, 28 aircrafts in the 120 plus category, belonging to private air taxis, were in operation. The consequence of this liberalisation was that by march 1995, 35.65 of the market was being catered to by private air taxis. The number of passengers being carried by air taxi operators has increased from 15,000 in 1990 to 3.6 million in 1994.
A number of projects have been taken up involving modernization of air traffic services at Bombay and Delhi airports, installation of airport surveillance radar at Ahmedabad, Guwahati, Hyderabad and Thiruvanathapuram, development of 12 model airports for upgradation of facilities and improvements in quality of services at airports.
Airport infrastructure demands heavy investments, large expenditure on servicing, replacements and renewals. Domestic and foreign investors, including NRIs, have been invited to participate in the development of new international airports and expansion of infrastructure at some domestic airports. AAI has also decided to privatize ground handling at Delhi and Bombay.
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