The Government is in the process of reviewing the existing Foreign Direct Investment policy framework in the domestic aviation sector, the Secretary, Civil Aviation, Dr Nasim Zaidi, said.

The proposal is likely to see the Government allowing foreign airlines to acquire a minority stake in domestic airlines. At the moment foreign airlines cannot own a stake either directly or indirectly in a domestic airline.

Besides, in an effort to enhance air connectivity, the Government has constituted a committee to look at the existing route dispersal guidelines to enhance connectivity, particularly to tier II and III cities. The route dispersal guidelines govern the number of cities to which a domestic airline has to have regular operations.

Dr Zaidi was addressing a conference on aviation organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

A statement from the organisers states that a remote area connectivity fund has also been proposed by the Ministry of Civil Aviation in the forthcoming Twelfth Five-Year Plan.

Notices to flying schools

Meanwhile, the Director-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has issued notices to more than half of the 40 flying schools and given them a 30-day deadline to comply with regulations.

“We have given each school 30 days to fall in line otherwise their licenses would be suspended,” the DGCA, Mr E.K. Bharat Bhushan, said.

The DGCA had started an audit of flying clubs earlier this year and discovered that some of the flying clubs, to help candidates get flying licences, were not making proper logbook entries.

The probe led to some people being arrested. The DGCA also started to scrutinise the records of licences obtained abroad by pilots.

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