The Draft of Civil Aviation Policy, if adopted by the Central Government, is likely to undermine the prospects of international operations at the Biju Patnaik International Airport here.
The Union Ministry of Civil Aviation released the draft on November 10 and invited comments and suggestions from stakeholders. As per the draft, the six metropolitan airports of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore and Hyderabad would be developed as major international hubs and in future be the main access points for international travel in the country.
Besides, the Civil Aviation Authority would in future follow a “hub-and-spoke” model, which would also facilitate development of regional networks and air connectivity as a whole.
The existing bilateral agreements with foreign airlines will be reviewed on an equal opportunity basis. Future bilateral agreements will be designed in such a way as to facilitate the hub-and-spoke model, the draft proposes.
This draft obviously includes Bhubaneswar as part of the hub-and-spoke model for supporting metropolitan international airports. This is feared to make the Biju Patnaik Airport one among several domestic airports of the country and the State’s ambitious plan of having an international airport is most likely to be nipped in the bud.
Notably, India has at present 132 airports under the Airports Authority of India (AAI) out of which 46 are domestic while there are 15 international airports. There are also four joint venture airports in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad developed in collaboration with private sector companies.