Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Saturday, Feb 21, 2004
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Saturday, Feb 21, 2004 |
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Airlines Logistics - Airlines Government - Policy Pvt airlines allowed to fly to Colombo — UAE carrier to operate flights from Abu Dhabi Ashwini Phadnis
New Delhi , Feb. 20 AT long last, passengers flying to Colombo and Abu Dhabi will soon have more airlines to choose from. The Government has finally given its nod, allowing private sector domestic airlines to start operations abroad. Official sources told Business Line that a proposal to allow private sector schedule airlines to fly to Colombo was approved recently. The sources said the approved proposal has since been forwarded to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and an official notification permitting commencement of flights to Colombo is expected as early as Monday. The move by DGCA comes more than two months after the Union Cabinet had, on December 10 last year, approved a proposal to allow the domestic private sector airlines to operate to the six nations grouped under the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC), including Sri Lanka. Yet another proposal, which was taken up earlier this month, to allow domestic sector private airlines to operate globally except to the Gulf region, did not, however, get the Cabinet's nod. Interestingly, official sources pointed out that for the moment, the domestic private sector airlines have not been granted the DGCA's go-ahead to fly to other SAARC destinations as no official request has yet been received for commencement of such operations. Meanwhile, the two major private sector domestic airlines - Jet Airways and Air Sahara - have already firmed up their plans to start operating flights between India and Colombo. While Jet plans to operate a daily flight from Chennai to Colombo, apart from providing a five-times-a-week service from both Mumbai and Bangalore, Air Sahara plans to operate a daily flight from both Mumbai and Chennai. The decision to "encourage" private sector airlines to Colombo was part of a joint communiqué issued in October last year at the conclusion of the visit of the Sri Lankan Prime Minister. In addition, the number of flights between India and Abu Dhabi is set to increase shortly with the Indian Government giving permission to the designated UAE carrier to operate a daily flight to Mumbai and fly three times a week to Delhi. The decision to allow more flights between India and Abu Dhabi was taken at the recently concluded air services bilateral talks. Sources indicated that the newly launched national airline of the UAE, Etihad Airways, is likely to start operating between India and Abu Dhabi under the newly concluded air services bilateral agreement. The Government has also decided to extend the limited open sky policy for another month till the end of March this year to ensure that air travellers do not face any problems in getting seats into or out of India.
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