Govt to ‘wait and watch’ before easing norms to fly abroad

New Delhi: For domestic carrier IndiGo, it may come as a bit of a dampener as the civil aviation ministry has decided to ‘wait and watch’ before relaxing norms enabling domestic carriers to fly abroad. IndiGo, which has been holding behind-the-door consultations with the ministry on the matter, has so far received a lukewarm response for its proposal to commence international flights by relaxing current norms. The airline has significantly improved its performance, wresting almost 14 per cent market share in 2009, highest among low-cost carriers.
Seeing the bloodbath that Indian airlines witnessed in the recent past and soaring losses, a senior ministry official said, “At this point, we can not relax the international flying norms. That will ring a death knell for the present operators.” Kingfisher Airlines posted losses to the tune of Rs 419 crore during third quarter of 2009-10 largely on account of international flying; the airlines had shut down its Bangalore-London route last year.
Jet Airways too undertook restructuring of its routes following losses last year. Similarly state-owned carrier Air India battling Rs 5,000 crore losses cut down several unprofitable international routes.
09/02/10 Smita Aggarwal/Indian Express

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Categories: Foreign Feb 2010, IndiGo Airlines Feb 2010, New Feb 2010