The Hindu Business Line : Open-sky policy added 1.2 lakh air seats: Rudy

THE Government's decision to follow an `open-sky' policy for a three-month period, starting December this year, has seen more than 1.2 lakh air seats being added, the Minister for Civil Aviation, Mr Rajiv Pratap Rudy, told the Lok Sabha on Monday.

In response to a questio, Mr Rudy said that while there had been an addition of 48,000 air-seats during the open-sky period in 2000-01, it went up to 52,000 additional air seats during the open-sky period last year. In an effort to ensure that passengers wanting to travel to and from India do not face any difficulty, the Government has been allowing international airlines to either operate more flights or operate larger aircraft. However, the airlines have to enter into a commercial agreement with either Air India (AI) or Indian Airlines (IA) before utilising the opportunity being made available by the Government.

During the current year, the Government is following an open sky policy for airlines of all countries, including the Gulf region, between December and February next year.

To another question, the Minister said that while the IA's 43 Airbus aircraft fleet acquisition plan was being considered by the Government, it was yet to receive AI's proposal to acquire 28 aircraft, including 10 medium-capacity-long-range Airbus A-340-300 aircraft and 18 small capacity-short-range Boeing 737-800 aircraft.

The AI board cleared the fleet acquisition proposal at its last board meeting held in November.

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