Rajya Sabha passes Bharatiya Vayuyan Vidheyak-2024

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The new Bill seeks to remove redundancies and replace the Aircraft Act, 1934 — which has been amended 21 times — at a time when India is one of the fastest-growing civil aviation markets in the world.

During the debate, DMK MP Kanimozhi NVN Somu said the name of the Bill should be changed. Hindi or Sanskrit should not be imposed on people in this fashion, she added.

YSRCP MP S Niranjan Reddy also objected to the title of the Bill and said there were legal problems with using only Hindi for giving the title of a Bill.

Later, replying to the debate, Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu said words such as Bharatiya and Vayu were found in Telugu, which is his mother tongue. The title of the Bill could be seen as a mix of match of various Indian languages, he said. He further added that it would be difficult to pronounce the name of the bill in Hindi initially but one would get used to the same.

The Minister further said the ministry was working on removing the clause that allows airlines to change the fare in 24 hours to address the issue of high prices of air tickets.

He further said airfares were moderate in 2024 as compared to 2023 and a decline in air ticket prices was observed in various routes during festival seasons.

The government has worked on improving accessibility to a certain extent through the Udaan scheme and was committed to making it affordable for passengers, he added.