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Our Bureau

New Delhi, Aug. 20 The Ministry of Civil Aviation has no immediate plans to allow foreign airlines to pick up equity in domestic airlines or divest any holding in Air India and Pawan Hans Helicopters Ltd, a senior Ministry official said on Wednesday.

“The idea to allow foreign airlines to pick up equity in domestic airlines keeps floating around. No such proposal is being considered. Even the Committee headed by the Cabinet Secretary is not looking at this proposal in a formal sense,” Secretary, Civil Aviation, Mr Ashok Chawla, said on the sidelines of a seminar on ‘Helicopter medical emergency services and development of heliports.’

At the moment, the Government caps foreign direct investment limit in the domestic civil aviation sector at 49 per cent. Foreign airlines, however, are not allowed to invest either directly or indirectly in the sector at the moment.

On the issue of divestment in two PSU companies under the Ministry, Mr Chawla said that the Ministry was not actively looking at the proposals.

“The Department of Disinvestment keeps looking at this or getting information on various PSUs to explore the possibility of perhaps disinvesting of a few percentage points. The Ministry may have provided some information to the Department, but is not actively looking at it,” the Secretary added.

The Government has also received a proposal from the private sector developers undertaking the modernisation of Mumbai and Delhi airports for increasing charges by 10 per cent.

“The contractual agreement that the promoters have entered into with the Government allows them to raise the charges after two year provided some stipulated works have been done. The Ministry has received a proposal for raising charges by about 10 per cent and this is being examined,” Mr Chawla said.

More Stories on : Airlines | Foreign Direct Investment

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