New Civil Aviation Policy to boost airline bookings, Via.com

BENGALURU, India - June 16, 2016 - PRLog -- Cabinet approves much-awaited National Civil Aviation Policy

The Union Cabinet today cleared the much-awaited National Civil Aviation Policy. The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) had sent the revised draft to the Cabinet for approval on June 3 after the Central government proposed a new draft in October 2015.

Ashok Gajapathi Raju, Minister for Civil Aviation, Government of India, said the new policy will be a "game-changer" and that the country's aviation sector is poised to become the world's third largest by 2022. "The centrepiece of this policy is the BJP manifesto's promise of Regional Connectivity," he tweeted after the Cabinet meeting.

Aiming the new integrated National Civil Aviation Policy (NCAP) 2016 be a game-changer for the sector, Rajiv Nayan Choubey, Secretary, Civil Aviation (MoCA), Government of India, informed that MoCA has capped one-hour flight at a subsidised rate of INR 2500.

Moreover, the MoCA has replaced the decade-old 5/20 rule with 20 aircraft to fly internationally. The government has also assured its stand on Open Sky Policy for countries over destinations to 5,000 km from New Delhi on reciprocal basis.

Choubey asserted that MoCA is focussed on bringing down the operational costs of airlines in order to lower the ticket rates. They also announced that carriers can now do self ground handling and it is no more mandatory to outsource.

According to Kousik Bhattacharya, Head-Marketing and B2C Business, VIA.com, the much-awaited National Civil Aviation Policy has been approved and this is a welcome step." This is expected to boost regional connectivity. There will be considerable shift to the airlines from the railway and bus passengers. Thus, we see an increase in airline bookings and a spurt in flight movement from the Tier II and Tier III cities," he adds. This clearly spells better business opportunities for OTAs as well, he adds.

Talking about the extra baggage allowance, Bhattacharya opines, "The extra baggage allowance will be an extra cushion for travellers, especially for family segment travellers."

The reduction in flight cancellation fees should help boost the trust of consumers and facilitate more airline booking, especially for short-haul destinations where the gap between railway cancellation fees and air cancellation fees has been extremely high till date. The reduction in flight cancellation fee will help in mitigating the gap and thus, get traction from the high-end railway users who were earlier sceptical about the high cancellation charges in flights, he comments.

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