Lobbying and years of debate have been unable to change the civil aviation ministry’s stand on eligibility for Indian carriers to fly abroad.
The ministry has decided to continue with the existing provision — which requires a domestic airline to have a minimum 20-aircraft fleet and five years of domestic operations before it becomes eligible to fly overseas — and decided against referring this matter again to the Cabinet.
So, low-cost carrier (LCC) SpiceJet — which completes five years of domestic flying this June — is set to fly abroad this year. But IndiGo, the most successful LCC today, will have to wait till August 2011 before being allowed the same privilege.
Three of the largest Indian carriers — Air India, Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines — are already operating on international routes, but in many instances, have been unable to exhaust the seats granted under bilaterals.
Meanwhile, official sources confirmed to DNA Money that though SpiceJet has been given an in-principle approval to fly to nearby destinations such as Hong Kong, Singapore, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka from June, the final approval is still pending. In fact, the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is in the process of validating the airline’s request on route allocation by verifying essentials such as fleet and aircraft, pilots and other criteria.
Sources said pending a final approval, the ministry has already given SpiceJet a “letter of comfort” which will help the airline negotiate airport slots, office premises etc at foreign locations.
In the case of IndiGo, DGCA approval will take a month or two and a similar process would be followed as in the case of SpiceJet. IndiGo is believed to have sought permission to fly to Saarc and Asean countries such as China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Nepal etc.
Both airlines are looking to fly narrowbody aircraft which can only be deployed on short haul routes — neither carrier is currently looking to service long-haul sectors such as Europe and the US just yet. SpiceJet has a single-aircraft type fleet comprising Boeing 737-800 with winglets and Boeing 737-900ER. IndiGo has a fleet of Airbus A320 aircraft.
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