Aviation News

Previous File

Indian airlines can operate overseas

       New Delhi: The Union Cabinet has approved the proposal of the Ministry of Civil Aviation to allow eligible Indian Scheduled Carriers to operate on international routes other than to Gulf countries. The restriction on the Gulf countries is for the next three years. It also approved the Ministry’s proposals and course of action suggested for strengthening Air India and Indian Airlines, and for establishing the improved operational synergy between Air India and Indian Airlines. Further the Cabinet has approved the proposal to discontinue the practice of mandating commercial agreements on all new services, to review the existing commercial agreements and phase them out over the next five years.

      The designation of Indian Scheduled Carriers for operations on international routes will be subject to proven credentials of the airlines in the domestic sector. Only Indian scheduled carriers with the minimum of five years continuous operations and having minimum of 20 aircraft in their fleet will be allowed to operate on international routes. Request of all eligible airlines for additional entitlements will henceforth be taken into account in bilateral negotiations. Efforts will be made to obtain traffic entitlements commensurate to the requirements of all eligible airlines. However, in case the total entitlement fall short of requirements projected by the eligible airlines, inter-se allocation of entitlements among eligible airlines will be in the ratio of Available Seat Per Kilometer (ASKM) deployed by them on domestic routes over the last five years. Due consideration will be given to the operational plan of Air India/Indian Airlines while allotting entitlements to Indian Scheduled Carriers. The Ministry of Civil Aviation will draw detailed guidelines in this regard.

     With a view to encouraging greater connectivity, creating a level playing field, reducing passenger tariffs and ensuring viability of operations, the practice of demanding compensation from foreign airlines by way of commercial agreements mandated by the government will be discontinued. All new operations by foreign carriers, both on new destinations as well as on existing routes, will be free from the obligations of the mandated commercial agreements. All existing government mandated commercial agreements will be reviewed and phased out over the next five years. However, the airlines will be free to enter into such cooperative marketing arrangements as are mutually agreed upon by them.
-Dec 29, 2004

Previous File                   Go To Top