India to Relax Aviation Rules

Tuesday, 28th January 2014 at 03:26am

India will soon ease its rules on commercial aviation that have been in place for decades that many industry players view as an impediment to the development of the country's aviation industry.

The Indian government currently imposes stringent rules on local commercial airlines who want to fly to international destinations.

Currently, any local airlines who want to expand their route network beyond India, need to have at least 5 years of commercial operations in the country and need to have no less than 20 aircraft in its fleet.

The Civil Aviation Minister, Ajit Singh, confirmed the removal of such rules in the recent public announcement. The total abolition of the rule is expected to take effect by February this year.

The liberalization of the aviation rules follows the easement of FDI policy in the aviation industry in 2012 that gave way to the entry of at least two foreign-based airline companies in the local aviation sector. More are expected to follow soon.

Go Air will be the first local airline to benefit from the abolition of the rules. While the airline has already satisfied one rule on the number of years of operations, it has yet to comply the other - the number of aircraft in its fleet.

Go Air started its commercial operations since 2005 but it has only 17 planes in its fleet.

The relaxation of the rules will also allow other airlines which are planning to fly out of the country such as the two start-up airlines that Tata Group has a stake - AirAsia India and the proposed Tata-SIA Airlines.

Tony Fernandes, the founder and CEO of AirAsia Bhd, has been critical of India's aviation policy which he views as absurd and anti-business. He observed that a foreign-based airline with only one aircraft can fly to India but Indian local airlines with less than 20 aircraft in its fleet can't fly out of India. He thought it is quite unfair to local airlines who are deprived of the opportunity to grow their business the faster way they can.

The Minister is also studying on the proposal that seeks to allow jumbo aircraft such as the behemoth A380 to fly to Indian airports. The jumbo jet can carry up to 600 passengers at a time and it requires infrastructure that is able to handle its operations such as ground handling, immigration and security.

If that happens, large carriers which have been operating in India such as British Airways, Emirates, Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines will now be able to fly to the country using their A380 equipment.

By: Pete Lee.