Criteria for Airlines wanting to fly abroad to be relaxed

The eligibility norms for airlines seeking to fly abroad are all set to be relaxed. The government is planning to ease the entry condition to a minimum of three years of domestic operations from five years at present. Low-cost carrier Air Deccan may be the first to make use of the relaxed norms since it has already completed three years in August 2006. It is expected to retain the existing low-cost model for foreign destinations as well. The government’s proposal follows heavy lobbying from the domestic airline industry, which has been demanding easier norms for foreign operations. Airlines like Kingfisher, SpiceJet and Air Deccan have shown interest in expanding their operations to foreign destinations. “The idea of allowing private airlines to fly overseas is to enable strong competition to foreign carriers,” a Civil Aviation Ministry official said. The changed norms will kick in with the new civil aviation policy, which is likely to be put in place by January 2007. Air Deccan has already drawn up plans to fly to countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Maldives.

“We will fly to countries such as Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and Maldives immediately after the government relaxes its present norms,” Air Deccan MD GR Gopinath said. Air Deccan, which set up subsidiary Deccan Lanka in Sri Lanka, has put on hold its plans to start flights from Colombo to various cities in India. The no-frills carrier is likely to commence its Sri Lanka and other operations only after the new guidelines are implemented. The company will deploy Airbus A-320 on foreign destinations and operate with the similar low-cost model. Kingfisher has already set up a fully-owned subsidiary in the US from where it plans to fly to India. While other low-cost carriers currently have no such plans, industry sources said they might like to fly to foreign destinations after the norms are relaxed. Kingfisher Airlines had held that aircraft were often grounded all night when they could be utilised for flying to neighbouring countries. “We have suggested that if foreign airlines can compete with us in India, why can’t we fly abroad and compete with them,” Mr Gopinath said.

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