India To Discard Nonsense Aviation Rule

Friday, 1st November 2013 at 04:37am

India has a strange rule for airline operators to follow when they plan to expand their network overseas. They are required to log five years of domestic operations before they are allowed to fly out to international destinations.

Strange as it is but yes, Indian airlines have to satisfy such requirement before they can venture out of the country to serve international routes.

That peculiar aviation regulation, however, will soon become a thing of the past in the country's aviation law as Ajit Singh, the Civil Aviation Minister, has announced recently that such stipulation will be written off the book in November this year.

Along with the mandated 5-year domestic operations, another unusual requirement from the civil aviation office for airlines is the possession of at least 20 aircraft in their fleet. This '5-20' rule has encumbered the country's effort to develop its aviation industry and prevented prospective investors to pour in their capital in the aviation sector.

The Minister further said that he can't find any logic in the existing rule that disallows airlines to expand overseas. He said that he is trying hard to scrap the said regulation as early as November this year in order to ease the burden of future investors who are planning to set up an airline company in the country.

The scrapping of the regulation will enable AirAsia India to jump start in its plan to fly to international routes out of Chennai.

In general all recent and future players to the country's aviation market will be greatly benefited from the government's decision to discard the law which is seen by many in the industry as illogical and non-sense.

It will become possible now for both AirAsia India and SIA Airlines to mount flights to international destinations in their inaugural operations.

SIA Airlines, in particular, is planning to fly overseas out of Delhi as part of its maiden service once it commences operations in the middle of next year.

By: Pete Lee.