The US is drafting airlines for relief efforts. Can India do the same?

Marines of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) process Department of State personnel for evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Kabul, Afghanistan, in this photo taken on August 15 and released by U.S. Navy on August 18. (Image: Reuters)

As horrible scenes played out at Kabul airport, the only discussion happening around the world was the evacuation of citizens. After Air India managed to evacuate a few Indian citizens and Afghan nationals a day before Kabul fell to the Taliban fighters, the Indian Air Force (IAF) has been doing the duty.

After evacuating the embassy and the press, successive flights have ensured that citizens are ferried out, along with some Afghan nationals and nationals of other countries.

The IAF has pressed the C-17 aircraft for this mission, and it takes a long route via Iran to avoid Pakistani airspace, which would avoid giving access to a military plane from India. The airport is now under the control of Americans and while the airspace over other parts of the country remains uncontrolled, Kabul airport is being managed and coordinated by American military controllers.

Also Read: India brings back 146 of its evacuated nationals from Doha

As the US struggles to get a grip over the evacuations and holds on to the airport at Kabul and while the rest of the city comes under a tighter grip of the Taliban, the US Department of Defense activated what is known as Civil Reserve Air Fleet Stage 1.

This is only the third time in history that this Act is being activated in the US.

What is Civil Reserve Air Fleet?

The US rules mandate that civil airlines can be compelled to operate in times of need and at a short notice. The airlines agree to provide aircraft and fleet at a notice of 24 hours. With this activation, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Atlas Air and Omni Air have provided three aircraft each while Hawaiian will provide two and United four.

The first of the aircraft have already joined the mission, which does not involve flying to Kabul, but to air bases and airports in the region where the US military has evacuated people from Kabul. These civil airliners will then ferry the passengers to a more permanent location before their future is chalked out.

What about India?

Section 6 of The Aircraft Act, 1934, talks about the power of the central government to make orders in an emergency. Sub-section (1) (d) of this states that “direct that any aircraft or class of aircraft, or any aerodrome, aircraft factory, flying school or club, or place where aircraft are manufactured, repaired or kept, together with any machinery, plant, material or things used for the operation, manufacture, repair or maintenance of aircraft shall be delivered, either forthwith or within a specified time, to such authority and in such manner as ^b[it] may specify in the order, to be at the disposal of ^d[Government] for the public service.”

This was much discussed after the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai, which saw the terrorists kill hundreds of people and the elite NSG commandos were waiting for an aircraft in Delhi to fly to Mumbai and start their operation.

While Air India has been on the forefront for evacuation missions from Kuwait in 1990 to Wuhan in 2020, private airlines have, in the past, deployed their assets for evacuation. Kingfisher Airlines and Jet Airways operated flights to Libya and nearby evacuation points in 2011 when Indian nationals were being evacuated. This was in addition to the flights already deployed by Air India and ships of the Indian Navy.

Will this be evoked now?

While legalities allow evoking such clauses, modalities may not. With the airport at Kabul under American control and only military aircraft being allowed for most part of the day, civil flights from across countries have stayed away.

The Air India flight which operated to Dushanbe, a day ago, did not overfly Afghanistan, which meant that it took more than double the time to reach Dushanbe from Delhi than it normally would.

While flying to surrounding areas may not be a challenge, flying to the war zone always is. Most airliners in India are leased and for such missions where the threat perception is high, the lessor may or may not allow the aircraft to be deployed. This could potentially lead to a situation where the airline is at the receiving end from both the government and the lessor. So far, this situation has been avoided.

Also Read: A new narco-state is blossoming in Afghanistan under the Taliban

There is a way out. Nitin Sarin, managing partner at law firm Sarin & Co, which advises lessors and airlines, said: "While leased aircraft usually cannot be operated to certain hostile countries, if the requisition is by the government in an emergency situation, aircraft have to be utilised for this situation, becoming an occurrence beyond the control of the operator."

Tail Note

It is only the third time that the US is evoking the Civil Air Reserve Fleet. Be it natural disasters or the deteriorating geo-political situation, the last three decades have seen an increasing need to evacuate countrymen from across the world and one can never rule out the need to evoke such a rule in India.

A similar rule was evoked to set a floor price and ceiling price for fares, post pandemic. Newer airlines which are about to take wings probably need to look at each clause well to have a risk assessment in place.