Government Must Step In, Now!

On the significant side-lines, before the main issue, considering the current & the likely after-effects of the on-going COVID-19 event, there are perhaps going to be some fundamental changes in future in the mind-sets of people across nations towards air travel, which in turn should, to a lesser or greater extent, affect the fundamentals of the business air travel industry. Specifically, & only illustratively, in the minds of our people:

1. Countries in Europe, the Americas, the Middle-East & the Far-East may lose some of their charm as hot tourist spots, keeping in mind any unpredictable, earth-shaking Covid-like events springing sudden surprises in future as well. To seize the available opportunity before it evaporates, our own within-the-country tourist facilities could be improved in an attempt to match the perceived international standards.
2. Students seeking admissions into universities abroad for educational courses may not remain as crazy for the same as they appeared to be yesterday. This presents an opportunity for our educational institutions to further develop & match the standards of coveted international institutes.
3. Well-placed patients seeking medical attention abroad, in preference to available equivalent indigenous facilities, may have a re-think. We could invest to further upgrade our medical care facilities to even higher standards.
4. The charming idea of status-linked events such as “Destination Weddings” abroad may also be adversely impacted.
5. Business community, politicians and well-placed citizens, so long as they can afford it, may gradually change their mind-set so as to prefer air travel by private jets/turboprops & air-taxies, both within & outside the country, just as they have overwhelmingly opted for personal vehicles & ground taxies as the preferred mode of a safe, comfortable & convenient method of affordable self-transportation, etc.

If so (the assumptions made above may or may not, in whole or in part, come out to be true), these are bound to impact the contours of the Civil Aviation, including the GA/BA, Industry.

THE MAIN ISSUE:

Presently, however, most of the existing players of the GA/BA industry, with their normally wafer-thin balance sheets, have gone into a state of confusion & disarray, not knowing what the future holds for them. Since the current holdings of their mentors, be it hotels, industries or other business establishments/ventures, have also by now run into serious trouble with sudden shut-downs &, with the accumulating losses in their primary business mounting on a daily basis, any hope of their being able to support their secondary ventures such as the aviation establishments stands totally ruled out for now. Result: Like the unfortunate daily-wage workers, the Charter Company managing staff are now desperately & hopefully looking for their daily “LITTIE-CHOKHA” (read: ‘Bread & Butter) as doles from the Government. Such desperately-needed help has not come in as yet & serious starvation has set-in. The Government must, therefore, provide immediate relief measures to save the GA/BA industry from withering away. Towards this end, on the welcome initiative of the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) a few weeks ago, these measures have already been discussed with the stakeholders & requisite data provided. Understandably these have been further taken up with the Government by MoCA on behalf of both the ‘Scheduled’ as well as the ‘Non-scheduled’ Operators.

The primary relief measures sought include (but are not limited to) the following three:

1. Grants/Interest-Free Lines of Credit to cater for an initial period of, say, upto 6 months. The Aviation industry may be looking for up to equivalent of $1.5 billion. As a suggestion, the disbursal to the small, the medium & the large entities could be in relation to the Company’s annual turnover averaged over the last, say, three years
2. Reduction /waiver/ relief in Central- & State-Taxation on ATF, Spares, Maintenance & other inputs.
3. Waiver/Relief in Rentals, Landing, Parking, Handling, Royalty & other Op-related (RNFC/TNLC, etc) charges levied by all the ‘AAI-’ as well as the ‘Privately Operated-’ Airports

As per their own perception & in the very limited time-window provided, many of the CFOs /Tax-Heads of various aviation companies (both scheduled & non-scheduled) have, in due consultation with their CEOs, submitted detailed figures & proposals/recommendations individually and directly to MoCA for further consolidation & consideration, so as to enable the Government to take a decisive view on the subject. The actual figures & recommendations are too detailed & company-specific to be recapitulated here.

In the absence, however, of immediate support /relief measures as outlined above & as may be finally decided by the Government as feasible, surely some or most of the current members of the GA/BA industry will fade out, not directly from COVID-19, but from the resultant fiscal starvation.

This is where the Government must step in fast to save an industry that has definitely contributed its due share in providing employment to thousands of Civil Aviation workers and in the business growth of the nation.

JAI HIND!

PVSM AVSM VSM
President, BAOA.