The Hindu Business Line : Panel questions open sky policy on airline IPO day

THE decision of the Ministry of Civil Aviation to open up the international skies for a particular airline on the day that its public issue opened has been questioned by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture.

The Committee's report, that was tabled in Parliament today, states that it is not convinced with the reply given by the Ministry of Civil Aviation about its decision to open up the international skies to a particular airline and granting it passage rights to some international routes on the opening day of its public offer.

"The Committee is of the view that the timing of the decision pushed up the company's IPO prospects and the policy adopted by the Government as also the clearances granted by the Ministry of Civil Aviation to the Company were too close to the public offer to be termed as a coincidence," the report points out.

While the report does not mention the airline by name the only carrier which came up with a public offer since the international skies were opened is Jet Airways. On the day the public offer opened, news trickled in that the airline had been permitted to operate three times a week to the United States through Belgium.

The panel has said that it is not convinced with the reply given by the Ministry of Civil Aviation on the criteria adopted in selection of scheduled domestic airlines to be allowed to fly abroad.

"There is an element of arbitrariness in imposing restrictions on airlines in terms of experience of flying and not allowing all the domestic scheduled airlines to fly on international routes," the report has said. Further it feels that by imposing such restrictions, the Ministry did not give a "fair chance" to other scheduled domestic airlines operating in the country.

The Committee has also expressed the view that the Ministry did not carry any "due diligence" of performance record of existing private sector airlines in terms of fulfilling social obligations by flying to remote and inaccessible areas of the country and utilising costly technological gadgets installed at the airports.

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