No foreign airline equity in domestic carriers

By Our Economy Bureau | 12 Aug 2004

New Delhi: Civil aviation minister Praful Patel on Tuesday announced that the UPA government will not allow foreign airlines to pick up equity in domestic carriers, even in new 49 per cent FDI regime.

"As the policy stands and will stand, there is no question of a foreign airline taking equity in a domestic carrier. That is the policy and we will stick to it," Patel said.

The UPA government had, in its union budget, announced that the FDI cap in the aviation sector will be increased from 40 per cent to 49 per cent. Ministry officials pointed out that even in the new FDI regime, foreign airlines will be kept at bay. "Foreign airlines will not be interested in developing India as an aviation hub. They will look at taking our traffic away and we want to avoid that," a official said.