Domestic air traffic near pre-Covid levels, multiple airports inaugurated in past year: Civil aviation secretary

New Delhi [India], October 17 : The Ministry of Civil Aviation has organised the conference of the secretaries of civil aviation of all the states and Union Territories. The inaugural session was chaired by Rajiv Bansal, secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, on Monday in Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi.
An official statement said the objective of the conference was to promote greater collaboration and synergy between state civil aviation departments and the civil aviation ministry to augment the development of the sector.
In his opening remarks, Secretary Rajiv Bansal said there had been a lot of progress in the last year. He said domestic air traffic was almost near to the pre-Covid level, multiple new airports had been inaugurated, and new routes launched, policy steps to promote drone and helicopter medical emergency services and Fractional Ownership have been initiated. The secretary requested states to reduce value-added tax (VAT) on aviation turbine fuel (ATF) and appreciated those states which have already done it.
Subjects of infrastructure support such as the extent of land requirement for different types of airports, pending cases of handing over of land, taxation-related issues such as VAT, tax incentives for promoting flight training organisation (FTO), maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO); civil aviation policies of states /UTs such as articulating the states /UTs civil aviation policies and its components, sharing the best practices of states like Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Odisha, Northeast Region, and promotion of last-mile connectivity were discussed during the conference.
The conference began with the opening remarks of the secretary, civil aviation ministry, and was followed by presentations on various initiatives and programmes of the Ministry of Civil Aviation, and a presentation by Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), among others.