QUESTIONS FROM PARTICIPANTS
To: Dr Sanat Kaul :
From : Anurag Srivastava: aus@bird.in
It is requested to kindly enlighten us on future of Drones and regulations framed by Government of India.Drones can be used for various needs of society how will the regulations differing from Civil Aviation Requirement - CAR. What will be regulations for operations and maintenance of drones in and around airports/ civil/ defence enclaves. How will hardware manufacturers and software developers get together to develop products as required by civil aviation or lot many uses of drones.
To : All Panelist
From – Sarath Menon <sarath.menon@riya.travel>
As we look forward to the revival of the industry
1) What is the way forward for the tourism industry. How do you look at recovering costs in the coming months especially with this season's business on a downward spiral.
2) Are there any recourse or respite for the Travel industry especially when there are a lot of SOPs for the manufacturing and agriculture sector.
3) Can we have a relook at the sixth freedom being enjoyed by the foreign airlines. We need to restrict this so that the Indian airlines will be able to cater to such a market.
To – Mr. Lohani
From SiddharthFlamingo siddharth@flamingotravels.co.in
Can we have acrylic/glass panels to ensure adequate distance between passengers seated on an aircraft?
To – All
From – Ramesh Iyer <Ramesh.Iyer@gmrgroup.in>
• Besides, PF, can we include leave encashment, gratuity and superannuation contribution for deferment by corporates and/or contribution by government.
• Can all employees become contract employees directly with his/her employer and GST can be taken as Input Tax Credit.
• We pay GST on input materials for movable and immovable items. but cannot take input tax credit on immovable items. e.g. Passenger Terminal Building, Runways, etc. but output GST is collected and paid on all receipts.
• Wan we represent GST ITC on all items for airports sector.
• Are we incentivising those pilots, staff, etc who are providing YEOMEN Services at this crucial juncture ahead of all other citizens locally and globally, at their own life being at RISK
To- All
From – Anish Muthigi <anish@uniglobefocustravel.in>
During the call we learnt that, seats will be utilised in a way to maintain Social Distancing, basically alternate seats will be left un-utilised. However, we see that the future bookings are not in line with this view , the seat maps are clear indicators of this(e.g. SpiceJet, Air Asia etc). We are able to select adjacent seats.
In these times, any booking is a boon. We have been taking bookings for our custom, individuals, group and FIT, we have been assigning adjacent seats to families/ groups. What happens to these bookings- especially bookings of group size like 9 or 10 people?
Key Recommendations from Bird Group Leadership Initiative Webinar on “Covid – 2020 and Beyond”
Bird Group Leadership Initiative organized a webinar consisting of senior leaders from Aviation and Tourism industry on 14th April. The session was introduced by Dr Ankur Bhatia, Executive Director, Bird Group, who set the context for the discussion. He informed the attendees that this was the first in a series of planned Webinars under the Bird Group Leadership Initiaive.
The panelists included the following:-
1. Mr Ashwani Lohani (Former CMD Air India and Chairman, AP Tourism)
2. Mr Ajai Singh (CMD, Spicejet)
3. Ms Tulsi Mirchandaney (MD, Blue Dart Aviation Ltd)
4. Mr Sujit Bannerjee (Secretary General, WTTC II)
5. Dr Sanat Kaul (Chairman, International Foundation for Aviation Aerospace and Drones) –
6. Ms Jyoti Mayal (President TAAI)
Mr Rajeev Talwar, MD DLF Ltd and Former ADG Tourism moderated the session.
Mrs Radha Bhatia, Chairperson, Bird Group, summed up the discussion.
The panellists were unanimous in their assessment that aviation and tourism are amongst the hardest hit in the current crisis, and would require substantial government support to remain viable and ride out the rough patch till such time normal traffic resumes. Some key suggestions from the panellists are as under –
• Aviation, tourism and hospitality being amongst the largest employers, revival of these industries is vital to prevent large scale job losses and resulting burden on government.
• Bringing ATF under GST, reduction of excise duty on it.
• Moratorium and waiver of interest on bank loans, increase in bank limits.
• To make travelling economical and to benefit all stakeholders new method of allotment of slots / airport concessions should be worked on to remove multiple layers of cost to the traveller.
• Waiver of rentals, parking charges and similar levies by airports till revival.
• Employer portion of EPF contribution to be catered for by notional deposit by the government for next two years. This will give relief to the employers without any immediate economic impact on the government.
• Leverage, incentivize “Aas Paas Tourims” or domestic tourism till adequate confidence for international tourist arrivals is built up.
• Revise travel and hospitality protocols to cater for protection against infection and restore confidence amongst tourists.
• Utilize surplus payload of passenger aircraft due to empty seats required for social distancing by increased cargo loads in them.
• GST waivers on travel services.
• Reduction on charges for credit card / e-payment transactions.
• Industry status to Aviation, Tourism, and Hospitality sectors .
• Increase dependence on automation to reduce vulnerability due to disruptions.
• Move from profit maximisation towards sustainability.
• Inter and intra industry collaborations to return to normalcy in the shortest timeframe.
• Adequate testing protocols to enable earliest possible resumption of travel – initially domestic and subsequently international.
