The Hindu Business Line : Ministry for more parleys before pvt airlines fly abroad

THE Ministry of Civil Aviation is to consult several other Ministries, including Home Affairs, before a final decision is taken on allowing scheduled private sector airlines to fly abroad.

Official sources told Business Line that a decision on whether the scheduled private sector airlines will be allowed to fly only to the six countries of the South Asian Association of Regional Co-operation (SAARC) or other regions also, is likely to be firmed up after the consultations.

Sources indicated that once the high-powered consultations are over, the Ministry of Civil Aviation will finalise the guidelines to allow the private sector airlines to fly abroad. However, no time-frame has yet been fixed for firming up these guidelines, although sources said that this would be done at the earliest.

While clearing the proposal for allowing scheduled private sector domestic airlines to fly abroad, the Union Cabinet had asked the aviation ministry to come back to it with a liberalised air services agreement framework.

While the framework for allowing the private airlines abroad is still on the drawing board, the sources said that all the requests received till now from the scheduled domestic sector airlines to fly abroad are well within the existing air services entitlements.

The window of opportunity for the three scheduled private sector domestic airlines — Jet Airways, Air Sahara and Air Deccan — to operate regular services abroad was first announced as part of a joint communication issued at the conclusion of the visit of the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka in October last year. The joint release talked about "encouraging" private sector scheduled airlines to fly to airports in Sri Lanka. However, in December last year, the Cabinet gave its nod for allowing the private sector airlines to fly not only to Sri Lanka but also to Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Bhutan and the Maldives.

Private airlines have already indicated their willingness to fly abroad. While Jet Airways plans to operate a daily service to Colombo from Chennai, apart from providing a five-times-a-week connection to the Sri Lankan capital from both Mumbai and Bangalore, Air Sahara plans to offer daily flights to Colombo from Mumbai and Chennai.