COIMBATORE: The government wants Indian airlines to take up more international routes and is ready to sign new bilateral agreements towards this, said Union civil aviation minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju Pusapati on Monday.

"The government would definitely not mind the increasing number of international passengers and raising freight. But this should contribute to our economy's GDP and not to another country's GDP," the minister said while reacting to a request from the industry to directly connect Coimbatore with Dubai.

The minister was in the city on an invitation from Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI), which submitted a memorandum to him on improving the Coimbatore airport's infrastructure and connectivity.

"It would be a great help if Coimbatore was connected directly with Dubai because then we are directly connected to any destination in Europe," said ICCI president D Nandakumar.

"Now we are forced to send all our export-oriented goods to Dubai through Kochi, Bangalore, Kozhikode and Chennai, where we waste a whole night in transit," said former head of PSG Institute of Technology C R Swaminathan.

"Recently SpiceJet, which is an Indian carrier, and Fly Dubai met us saying they were ready to operate flights from Coimbatore to Dubai and back, if only the city is included in the bilateral agreement," he added.

"Right now we have industries in Karur, Palakkad, Tirupur and Coimbatore which need to send their goods to Europe, but are forced to send it through Mumbai, Kochi and Bangalore. We can bring all that freight business back to Coimbatore if we are connected to Dubai," stressed CII's Coimbatore zone chairman Ravi Sam.

The minister agreed to look into why Coimbatore was not included in the Bilateral Aviation Safety Agreement which included 18 cities, including Madurai and Trichy. However, he said Indian airlines were not making use of the existing bilateral agreements. "Such agreements are pointless if Indian airlines do not perform and use it," he added.

He maintained that the government was open to privatizing non-performing assets like certain airports and airstrips but said it would not be a solution. "There are so many airstrips which are running on heavy losses. Those even in the private sector would not be interested in," said Raju. "So we would probably try creating a mix which would result in the Airport Authority of India (AAI) getting a revenue out of everything," he added.

He said there were plans to professionalize the management of Air India. "There is a long way to go to turning around Air India and making it our nation's pride," he added.

MANGALORE: The International Aviation conclave, originally planned for October 9, will now be held from December 11 in New Delhi. The event was postponed on request of the India Trade Promotion Organization due to clashing of dates with another event organized by the Ministry of Science and Technology.

The International Aviation Conclave Organizing Council met on Wednesday September 24 to discuss the situation with key potential stakeholders and accepted the proposal of the India Trade Promotion Organization to postpone the event. The new dates finalized and confirmed for this event with the India Trade Promotion Organization are December 11 to 13.

The IAC- 2014 Series, an annual event, comprising of a three day Conference, Exhibition and Awards Night is supported by the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Directorate General of Civil Aviation, US-India Importers Council, ADS-UK, and Other National and International Organizations. The theme for the inaugural year is 'Empowering Aviation - Encouraging Stability towards Sustainability'.

Approximately 700 Delegates, over 100 Exhibitors and more than 90 organizations for Awards Nominations have already registered to participate at this Global Event. This Event is expected to fetch a Foreign Direct Investment of more than US$4-5 billion.