Air Deccan chairman and managing director G R Gopinath sought an organisation on the lines of Nasscom (National Association of Software and Service Companies) for the country's aviation sector.
"The outfit should represent all stake holders in the aviation sector and emerge as a powerful lobbying body", he said speaking on the sidelines of the 55th Indian Travel Congress.
"The interests of the airlines industry should not be compromised. There is no point in removing a public sector monopoly and putting private sector monopoly in its place," he added.
Gopinath emphasised the need for making the country a global hub of aviation. "The domestic aviation sector should aim to become a billion seat industry. For this, we need 50,000 flights a day compared with 1,200 flights now," he said. He said the industry could achieve billion-seat capacity if it could make the middle-class fly four to five times a year.
"Around 30 million people travel by buses and trains every day. Even if 10 per cent of them shift to air travel, it will be 3 million passengers. It might take five to six years for the people to shift to air travel. This will be a tectonic shift and we would have to think big and act big," he said.
Gopinath said Air Deccan was ready to operate flights to small cities, provided the respective state governments created infrastructure and came forward to underwrite 50 per cent of the seats for one year.