Kerala seeks approval to fly its own airline

New Delhi: The Kerala government has sought the aviation ministry’s approval to have a startup airline with foreign operations. The CPM-backed Achuthanandan government wants to begin an airline in collaboration with an NRI and fly it to the Gulf.
According to rules, an airline must be five-year-old an have minimum 20 aircraft before it can be allowed to fly abroad. A group of ministers is slated to meet on November 1 to discuss relaxation of this rule on case-by-case basis.
“Even if rules are relaxed, the government will have to examine the financial, fleet and operational capabilities of any airline that wants to fly out of Indian shores. So there’s no provision to allow a startup airline to fly abroad from day one,” said a senior official.
Kerala government had some time back also sent this request and has now approached the ministry again recently. Its proposal, however, is not learnt to contain details of fleet they plan to have for their airline.
22/10/07 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India

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Categories: Foreign Oct 2007, New Oct 2007