Big players should enter aviation, not fly-by-night types: Former civil aviation minister Praful Patel

Mumbai: Former civil aviation minister Praful Patel on Friday said that big players - and not fly-by-night operators - should enter the country's civil aviation sector.

“There is no restriction on new airlines coming into India. But aviation is a very complex business. It is a tough business, very capital-intensive, and involves a high cash flow drain,” Patel said in an interview to PTI.

“That is why it is important that big players should come into the aviation business, and not just fly-by-night people. Some new airlines have been given licenses, but I don't think they are long-term players,” the 68-year-old politician said.

The senior Nationalist Congress Party leader, who was the Union Minister of Civil Aviation during 2004-2011 and is presently a Rajya Sabha member, said, "We need strong players like Tatas, who came with Air India. We need similar big names also to come into the aviation sector.” Asked about IndiGo’s widespread flight cancellations last month, Patel said, “IndiGo is financially a very strong airline, a very big airline. There was an issue of pilots and Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) rules. I wish they had handled it better.” “Having said that, on the whole, it is still a very important player in the Indian aviation market and will remain important for many, many years to come,” the former aviation minister said.

“I think it is important that aviation needs strong players. The monopoly or duopoly is not there because somebody made it like that. In the past, you saw Jet Airways, Kingfisher and GoAir collapse financially and a series of other airlines also had these kinds of problems,” Patel said.

“That’s why, if there are strong players in aviation, it will be good for the country,” he added.