GoM yet to reach consensus on aviation policy

NEW DELHI: The new Civil Aviation Policy will take some more time to be finalised as a Group of Ministers in a meeting on Thursday could not reach a conclusion on relaxing the norms for allowing Indian carriers to fly abroad.

A majority in the GoM, headed by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, is understood to have favoured the present norms and that it should form part of the policy.

The prevailing norms allow only those airlines to launch global operations which have put in at least five years of service in the domestic sector and have a 20-aircraft fleet.

While Jet Airways is the only private carrier which matches this eligibility criteria and launched global operations, Kingfisher-Air Deccan combine is a front-runner in getting the approval as the erstwhile low-cost carrier will be completing five years of domestic operations later this year.

A majority of the ten-member GoM are learnt to have favoured continuance of the prevailing norms, opposing the Civil Aviation Ministry proposal to become the nodal agency for deciding on the issue on a case-to-case basis.

The issue is likely to be decided on the basis of the existing bilateral air traffic rights with various countries, the existing capacity that can be filled in and the capacity of the airlines and their aircraft fleet to fly abroad providing the highest class of service, a source said.

Besides Mukherjee and Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel, the meeting was attended by senior ministers A K Antony, P Chidambaram, Kamal Nath, Lalu Prasad, Ambika Soni, S Jaipal Reddy, H R Bharadwaj, T R Baalu and Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia.