The Hindu Business Line : Tighter norms for domestic airlines' global flights likely

Global operations
The new guidelines are likely to be specified in the Civil Aviation policy that the Union Cabinet is likely to consider on Friday.
Air India and Jet Airways are other two airlines that would be eligible to fly abroad under the new guidelines.

New Delhi June 14 The Government is likely to tighten the norms for domestic airlines planning to fly abroad. Soon an airline would not only need to have a net worth of Rs 500 crore, but also show wide-body aircraft capability before becoming eligible to apply to the Government for operating globally.

In order to ensure that such airlines do not concentrate only on international operations, the Government plans to stipulate that at least 25 aircraft of the fleet be set aside for domestic operations before their international plans are considered.

At present, an airline must have a net worth of Rs 100 crore, a fleet of 20 aircraft and have operated for five years in the domestic skies to be eligible to operate abroad.

Consultations

The new guidelines may be specified in the Civil Aviation policy that the Union Cabinet is likely to consider on Friday. The Cabinet was earlier to meet on Thursday, but the meeting was postponed in view of the on going consultations for the forthcoming Presidential elections.

The immediate beneficiary of the proposed changes would be Kingfisher Airlines, which is the only airline that has ordered wide-body aircraft but at present is not allowed to operate abroad.

The airline is to receive the first of the 15 wide-body aircraft early next year. Kingfisher Airlines is to receive an Airbus A-340-500 aircraft in February next year, which has the capacity to fly non-stop between India and the US.

The airline has also ordered 5 each of the Airbus A-330 and Airbus A-330 aircraft.

New Guidelines

To overcome existing Government regulations, Mr Vijay Mallya's UB Group had started work to register an airline in the US that would fly passengers from US to India and back.

Air India and Jet Airways, the other two airlines that would be eligible to fly abroad under the new guidelines, already operate wide-body aircraft. The merger of Air India and Indian would create a global airline with a fleet of 111 aircraft, of which at least 50 aircraft would be wide-body.

Similarly, Jet Airways that currently has 5 wide-body aircraft, has ordered 10 Boeing B777-300 Extended Range (ER) and 10 Airbus A330-200 aircraft.