Kerala hunts for fleet-owning partner for Air Kerala

Thiruvananthapuram: After the Centre’s nod for its fourth international airport, the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government has started zeroing in on aviation as Kerala’s area of core competence. The go-ahead for Kannur airport has buoyed the VS Achuthanandan government enough to reopen the forgotten budget airline project.
Last week, Achuthanandan’s emissaries were knocking at doors of civil aviation minister Praful Patel’s in New Delhi to explore of LDF’s new-found comradeship with the public-private partnership (PPP) format could be made flexible enough to fit the Centre’s norms for new overseas air carriers.
Earlier, Patel had turned down the idea of a state-owned overseas airline operator. One, the norms required that an overseas licencee applicant should have five years of continous operations in the domestic sector. Two, the proposed airline should have a minimum 20-aircraft fleetsize. This means that Kerala would need to team up with an experienced and fleet-owning domestic airline, before rustling up its NRI capital. Earlier, the state had, through Cochin Internationl Airport, India's first greenfield PPP airport, prepared a feasibility report with the help of Ernst & Young. This report had not factored in an existing airline partner.
State minister (in charge of aviation) M Vijayakumar confirmed that the Air Kerala proposal was alive again.
20/01/08 M Sarita Varma/Financial Express

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Categories: Foreign Jan 2008, Low Cost General Jan 2008, New Jan 2008