New norms for airlines to fly abroad soon

Norms to allow Indian carriers to fly abroad could be amended to permit only those, including regional airlines, having adequate financial strength and technical capability to operate on the international routes.

The civil aviation ministry has recommended these changes to a group of ministers headed by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, which is currently reviewing the new Civil Aviation Policy called 'Vision-2020'.

"The gamut of issues like whether the present norms be amended or whether the insistence on five years of domestic experience is relevant or not, will be discussed by the GoM," Civil Aviation Secretary Ashok Chawla told PTI in New Delhi.

Under the prevailing norms, an airline which has a fleet of 20 aircraft, has operated in the domestic sector for five years and has a paid-up capital of Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion),

is allowed to fly abroad.

The norms were made to ensure that these airlines have served the country and were financially sound to operate on international sectors.

Domestic players like Kingfisher and SpiceJet have been seeking relaxation of these norms, under which only Air India, Indian (now merged) and Jet Airways are currently defined as 'designated carriers' to operate overseas.

Maintaining that the new norms were suggested by the Ministry to the GoM, Chawla said no major country had any time-bound stipulation to allow their carriers to fly abroad.

"Most of them allow their airlines to do so depending on their financial strength and their technical capability... Australia has an additional condition that 'public interest' should be ensured," he said.