The author has rightly called for a "wholisic view of aviation" given the severe bottlenecks that prevail. However, he seems to have completely overlooked the pervasive constraints placed on our aviation sector by the defence establishment. A careful review of these constraints is urgenty needed to weed out the ones which have outlived their military purpose in the post 9/11 era of aviation. There are defence constraints on the use of air space over places like Delhi, there is the reservation of one runway in Delhi purely for air force use, there are a score of airfields (like Dabolim in Goa) which are controlled by the military and result in onerous restrictions on civilian flights and so on. The Civil Aviation minister must take the initiative and press for a top level review of such antedeluvian restrictions which if lifted can go a very long way to quickly relieve the bottlenecks the author has talked about.
