India’s federal government on Wednesday relaxed the criteria for domestic airlines to fly overseas as part of a new civil-aviation policy aimed at driving growth in the sector.
Local carriers will no longer be restricted by the number of years they have operated domestically to fly abroad, Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju said.
Until now, they were required to complete five years of domestic service and have at least 20 planes in operation before being permitted to fly overseas. The government scrapped the time requirement but carriers must still reach the same criterion for planes or deploy 20% of their fleet on domestic routes.
Newer carriers such AirAsia India Pvt.—the local joint venture of Malaysia-based AirAsia Bhd.—and Vistara—the Indian airline venture of Singapore Airlines Ltd., have been pushing for a relaxation of the rules.
The new National Civil Aviation Policy was welcomed by Amar Abrol, CEO of AirAsia India, which started operating in India in June 2014. “The NCAP gives us clear direction to ramp up our operations in India and grow our business in the domestic segment before we scale our operations to fly international,” he said in a statement.
Both AirAsia and Vistara will need to increase their fleets significantly to qualify for starting international flights. AirAsia now has six planes and Vistara has 11.
Source: India Makes It Easier for Local Airlines to Fly Overseas – India Real Time – WSJ
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