In a reversal of its policy, the civil aviation ministry is open to
relaxing eligibility norms for Indian carriers planning to fly abroad.
?We are open to relaxing eligibility norms required for Indian
carriers to fly international. No one has approached us with a proposal
to relax norms, but it can be looked at,? said civil aviation minister
Ajit Singh. He said relaxation in the eligibility norms would also
depend on the merit of the case.
According to the norms, an Indian airline should have domestic
flying experience of at least five years and a fleet of 20 aircraft to
be eligible to fly abroad. However, there are no such norms for
international carriers flying into India. These only require permission
under bilateral rights.
GoAir is the only Indian carrier that does not have the approval to
fly abroad because it does not fulfill the minimum 20-aircraft fleet
criteria. Due to financial constraints, Kingfisher Airlines has also
stopped flying to foreign locations.
GoAir chief executive officer Giorgio De Roni recently said the
carrier was studying possibilities to approach the government for
allowing it to fly abroad with less than 20 aircraft. The airline
operates with a fleet of 12 Airbus 320 aircraft, which it plans to
increase to 20 by mid-2014. In June 2011, the airline had placed orders
worth $ 7.2 billion for 72 new, fuel-efficient A320 NEO aircraft and the
deliveries are expected to start in 2016.
The civil aviation ministry, under Ajit Singh, has allowed
increasing the utilisation of foreign bilateral rights for Indian
carriers to 40 per cent from the summer schedule, roughly equal to the
utilisation by foreign carriers. Before this, Indian carriers were
utilising only 22.7 per cent of the total foreign bilateral rights and
foreign carriers were utilising about 40 per cent of their allocated
rights.
India has signed bilateral rights agreements with about 100
countries and there are 834,000 weekly seats on international air
routes. Of the 22.7 per cent utilisation by Indian carriers, Air India
utilises 11.9 per cent, while the remaining four private carriers that
fly abroad utilise a combined average of 10.8 per cent. International
carriers utilise 37.9 per cent of the total ceiling.
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