Norms may be eased as domestic carriers look to deflect losses through international operations

28 Apr 2008

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New Delhi: Faced with a persistent demand from domestic airline operators to be allowed to start  operations abroad, more so as international travel is maintaining its upward trend in Asia, the ministry of civil aviation (MCA) is now considering taking up their demands at the level of a group of ministers (GoM) committee.

Existing rules mandate that domestic, or start-up, airlines must operate locally for five years before seeking permission to fly abroad. It now appears that MCA may propose an arbitrary date, such as 1 January 2010, for all interested domestic carriers to start operations on international routes, without any bias towards the number of years they may have put in service as carriers.

The proposal to relax these rules takes into consideration some genuine grouses that domestic carriers entertain. For one, international operations are turning out to be more profitable than domestic services, as a carrier like Jet Airways is discovering to its delight, mainly on account of unreasonably high fuel prices at home as well as a continuously growing level of international travel, at least in Asia.

High fuel costs are already bringing carriers to their knees, as they are forming an unacceptably high level of their operating costs.

India's rules governing international operations are also looking increasingly ridiculous as two-three aircraft fleet airlines are starting services to India even as domestic carriers with much larger fleets, and operating experience, find themselves hamstrung by this rule.

Airlines with huge aircraft delivery schedules are also keen to rationalise deployment of aircraft, as they need to battle overcapacity on domestic routes with international travel.

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