The Civil Aviation Ministry has constituted three advisory groups with representative of airlines, airport operators, cargo carriers, ground-handling companies, flight training organisations and maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) companies to deliberate and resolve challenges faced by the sector. 

“The groups shall meet regularly to deliberate upon issues and resolve challenges facing each sector. Orders have been issued for the same,” the ministry said in a statement on Thursday. All the three groups will be chaired by Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia. 

According to the official order, the first group comprises chiefs of airline companies and includes Air India CMD Rajiv Bansal, IndiGo promoter Rahul Bhatia, SpiceJet Chairman Ajay Singh, GoAir Director Ness Wadia, Vistara Chairman Bhaskar Bhat and CEOs of AirAsia India and Alliance Air. The group also includes Minister of State for Civil Aviation, Secretary of Civil Aviation and Director General of Civil Aviation as members.

The advisory group of airlines will advise the government on ways to enhance domestic and international connectivity, matters related to passenger facilities during air travel, methods to safeguard the viability of airlines, among other things.

In addition to the Civil Aviation Ministry and DGCA representatives, the second group comprises Airports Economic Regulatory Authority of India Chairman, Director General of Bureau of Civil Aviation Security and Chairman of Airports Authority of India, among others. 

According to the terms of reference of the advisory group of airport operators, the panel will discuss matters relating to enhancing airport capacity in the country, advise the government on infrastructure augmentation and modernisation, issues related to airport tariffs and capital expenditure performance of airports, including targets under National Infrastructure Pipeline. 

Similarly, the third group, which comprises ground-handling organisations, MROs, flying training organisations and so on, includes 17 members other than ministry and regulatory representatives. This group will discuss measures to increase the participation of Indian carriers in air cargo transportation and promote employment growth, suggest measures for infrastructure improvement and capacity building for air cargo sector.