Mumbai: Capt G R Gopinath, who ushered in the era of no-frills low-cost airlines in India, is getting ready to fly again with a new domestic licence. He said the empowered committee under the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Government of India had cleared his application to run a domestic airline, according to a report by Kalyan Subramani in Mumbai Mirror. However, the final nod is yet to come from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). “I reapplied for a national airline licence when the government changed the rules allowing foreign airlines to invest up to 49 per cent (in domestic carriers). Both have been cleared,” he said.
While he can technically start running the airline after DGCA’s approval, he will still need the Foreign Investment Promotion Board’s (FIPB) approval to bring in a foreign equity partner to part-fund his venture. After the sale of his first aviation venture, Air Deccan, to Vijay Mallya, Chairman, Kingfisher Airlines Ltd, in 2007-08, Capt Gopinath was bound by a cooling-off period of five years before he could return to the business. This period comes to a close this April.
28/02/13 TravelBizMonitor
