PIL against start-up airlines' plan to fly abroad

New Delhi: A public interest litigation (PIL) has been filed against the new civil aviation policy by NGO Social Action Forum for Manav Adhikar, which had earlier fought the Priyadarshani Matoo case.
The NGO has appealed in the Delhi High court that the civil aviation ministry’s proposal to relax the existing norm for start-up airline would lead to ‘extremely undesirable’ consequences for the aviation industry as well as passengers.
The PIL comes at a time when uncertainty prevails over civil aviation minister Praful Patel’s proposal to allow airlines to fly abroad on a case-to-case basis rather than the current norm of five years of experience in the domestic sector.
“Expansion by airlines would require additional technical manpower which is already scarce in the country. This may put the pressure on the government to increase working hours of pilots and engineers , leading to inefficiency of the personnel and hence posing threat to the safety of passengers,” Ajay Veer Singh, counsel for Social Action Forum for Manav Adhikar, told ET. “In the past, many airlines have come up and disappeared. Hence, only airlines having sufficient experience and deep pockets should be allowed to fly abroad,” he added.
12/10/07 Nirbhay Kumar/Economic Times

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Categories: Foreign Oct 2007, General Aviation Oct 2007, New Oct 2007