Government May Allow New Airlines to Fly Abroad

New Delhi: New Indian airlines may be allowed to fly abroad after completing only one year of domestic service instead of five years, with the government considering amending the rules to enable them do so, official sources said on Wednesday.

The Civil Aviation Ministry is examining a proposal to either completely scrap the rule that allows an Indian carrier to operate international flights only after it has flown domestic for five years and has a 20-aircraft fleet, or change the rules to one year of domestic flying and having a five-plane fleet, they said.

However, such a change or scrapping the rule, popularly called 5/20, would have to be decided upon by the Union Cabinet, they said, without elaborating as to by when this was likely to happen.

A change in the rules would have an immediate impact on carriers like AirAsia India, Air Costa or the proposed Tata-Singapore Airlines joint venture Vistara.

The older carriers have been consistently opposing any change in the 5/20 rule.

In September, Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju Pusapathi had met CEOs of all Indian airlines, where four of them - Air India, Jet Airways, IndiGo and SpiceJet - had sought retention of the 5/20 rule.

But Mr Raju had then said, "I don't see a reason why the 5/20 rule should be there. The government cannot keep everyone happy. We will take a call on 5/20 soon."

While the rule came into existence during the UPA-I government headed by Manmohan Singh, the UPA-II had initiated the process of junking it but could not finish the task.