A subsidiary of European aerospace major Airbus, Navblue and an Indian startup, Eflight, incubated by the company intend to work with the state-run Airports Authority of India (AAI) to produce equipment for airports under the government’s regional connectivity scheme, a media report claimed.
Navblue, produces aeronautical charts for worldwide airports and airline, whereas Eflight is an aggregator for domestic flight support primarily for business jets.
Potential airports under the regional connectivity scheme include the newly operational ones: Mundra in Gujarat, operated by the Adani Group; Bellary airport, Karnataka (now defunct with flights operating to the Jindal Group-run Vijayanagar airport), Hosur airport, Tamil Nadu, operated by Taneja Aerospace and the AAI-operated Salem airport in Tamil Nadu.
“Under the UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik) scheme, by 2022, the government wishes airlines under the regional connectivity scheme to cover over hundred airports. So, AAI has its task cut out for producing and maintaining charts. This is where Eflight & Navblue can work along with AAI and jointly produce charts as per laid down regulatory standards set by the DGCA,”
said Prem Kumar, co-founder of Eflight, adding that there have been no talks yet.
Eflight is one the two Indian startups that recently signed contracts with Airbus under its startup accelerator programme called BizLabs. The other company from India is Neewee, a Bengaluru-based startup that provides solutions using artificial intelligence and machine learning.
How might this benefit India?
An aeronautical chart is a map designed to assist a pilot in the navigation of aircraft. With the help of these charts, pilots are able to determine their position, safe altitude, the best route to a destination, en route navigation aids, alternative landing airports in case of diversion, and other useful information such as radio frequencies and airspace boundaries.
The AAI is currently the authorised agency to publish these charts for civil airports that they own but private small airfields do not have the manpower resource to produce charts as per AAI guidelines.
India has 450 unused airstrips and airports. The UDAN scheme has a 10-year review period, and 65 locations are connected by routes that have been put up in the two rounds of bidding so far.
Around 20 new airports under the UDAN scheme by the government in the past one year.
Among those where commercial flights have begun, or are ready to take off, are Mundra and Jamnagar in Gujarat, Jalgaon in Maharashtra, Bhatinda in Punjab, Kadapa in Andhra Pradesh, and Vijayanagar in Karnataka.
Kumar added that his company is also in talks with 10 private airfields that currently have business jet operations. Refusing to name the airports, he said that the products will be rolled out in three months.
We now have to wait and watch to see how this collaboration of Airbus and Eflight might bring about better communication in Indian airways.
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