Flying overseas all set to be cheaper

New Delhi: The Indian government is all set to effect changes in rules regarding operations on international routes by privately-owned domestic carriers, which may well result in a price war for foreign skies.
It has been learnt that the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) has forwarded a Cabinet Note to the Group of Ministers (GoM) – headed by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee – to relax the existing five-year eligibility requirement contained in regulations for foreign flights and reduce it to three years so as to make some more private carriers eligible to operate on international routes to and from India.
Now the proposed reduction of the eligibility criteria to three years would mean that a majority of domestic operators would become eligible to operate on international routes.
This would mean that the Indian Government would reciprocally have to permit foreign governments also to designate an equivalent number of new carriers based in their countries to operate air services to and from India.
The entry of so many new airlines, both Indian and foreign, would inevitably result in the provision of excess capacity on international routes which, due to competition, would see a cut in airfare rates.
07/08/07 Sanjiv Kumar/Economic Times

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Categories: Foreign Aug 2007, General Aviation Aug 2007