The five-member committee under the civil aviation ministry has to approve any expansion, fleet expansion or start of operations by private airlines and grant a no-objection certificate. In the case of new entrants the committee's NOC is a must for the company to start operations.

For instance, even if the Tata airline proposal is approved by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB), the company will require a no-objection certificate for its plans to acquire seven aircraft in the first year of operations to touch a total of 18 aircraft after five years before it can effectively begin operations.

``The committee usually uses its discretion,'' says aSahara Airlines official. ``There's no logic to their refusal.'' At its last meeting in April the committee cleared only 18 of the 35 applications. A proposal by Jet Airways to acquire 10 aircraft in December last year was approved in batches of four, three and three over three meetings, while that of Jet Airways was approved in two tranches.

At last month's meeting the panel granted an NOC to ModiLuft and East West to resume operations, but under several conditions.

So far the industry has not complained too loudly, but with the new restrictions on leasing aircraft coming into effect, operators will need quicker approvals to put their fleet in place.

The private airline companies also question the ability of the committee to decide what fleet they should operate and at what rate they should expand. ``We have to decide when we want more aircraft, we know our market. After all, it costs us money to import aircraft,'' says another player in the industry.

When contacted a committee member refutedallegations of ad-hocism in the functioning of the panel. ``We have set guidelines according to which we work. The government has the right to dictate simply because we do not want fly-by-night operators. In fact, the panel was set up in the aftermath of the collapse of private airlines in 1994 to prevent such a thing,'' he says.

The committee was set up in 1994 under the Directorate General of Civil Aviation and then transferred to the civil aviation ministry to check the entry of small players without the financial and managerial strength to sustain themselves. The committee has as members the DGCA, two officials of the aviation ministry, the chief of the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security and one financial advisor. The overriding concern for the committee is market capacity, followed by aircraft safety and its compatibility to Indian operations.

``How can we permit a company that does not have the resources to sustain an expansion and the operation of a huge fleet,'' the committee asks. Industry,however, says that when the committee denies permission, it throws the plans of the airline companies awry, affecting bottomlines.

Ostensibly the committee will prevent monopolising by any one private airline by checking unbridled import of aircraft.