Airline with 20-30 aircrafts may fly overseas

Bangalore: The ministry of civil aviation has proposed changes in the guidelines for allowing domestic airlines to fly overseas. It now plans to allow those airlines that have a certain minimum fleet strength to service international routes against the current norm of five years of domestic operations. The proposal is before the Cabinet and an approval is expected by the year-end.
Earlier, there were talks of reducing the time line for overseas operations from five to three years.
“Our proposal is that we should go by a threshold rather than the number of years. For instance, if the fleet size is the threshold and if an airline has 20-30 aircraft, then it should be allowed to fly overseas. The matter is before the Cabinet and the group of ministers is looking into it. We are expecting the Cabinet’s approval by the year-end,” civil aviation minister Praful Patel told ET.
The proposed rule will enable carriers such as Kingfisher Airlines, Air Deccan and SpiceJet to fly overseas.
Mr Patel said if domestic carriers have economic stability and good track record with required fleet size, they can fly overseas.
13/10/07 Urvashi Jha/Economic Times

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Categories: Foreign Oct 2007, General Aviation Oct 2007