No decision yet on 5/20 rule: Centre tells airlines

The Centre has indicated to the promoters of domestic airlines that it is yet to take a final decision on the contentious 5/20 rule.

This was conveyed at a meeting that the promoters of Jet, IndiGo Airlines, SpiceJet and GoAir had with Union Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapati Raju and Minister for Civil Aviation Mahesh Sharma, here on Wednesday.

Naresh Goyal, promoter of Jet Airways, Rahul Bhatia, promoter of IndiGo, Jeh Wadia, promoter of GoAir and Ajay Singh, the new promoter of SpiceJet, were among those who attended the meeting.

The 5/20 rule stipulates that a domestic airline must have a fleet of 20 aircraft and have flown for five years in the domestic skies before it can undertake international flights.

The meeting had been sought by the Federation of Indian Airlines (FIA), a grouping of older domestic airlines like Jet Airways, SpiceJet and IndiGo, among others.

While FIA is opposed to the removal of the 5/20 rule, Vistara and AirAsia, two new start-up airlines who stand to benefit from the removal of the rule are keen that it be removed.

The meeting puts at rest allegations made by the promoters of the airlines that attended the meeting and some other airlines that the Government was finalising the civil aviation policy without hearing out what the airlines that account for 95 per cent of the market have to say on the policy.

The Ministry has asked the airlines’ representatives to send some more papers to substantiate the claims being made by them including on the issue of how to determine control and ownership of domestic airlines.

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