)
Civil aviation ministry will hold discussions later this month with representatives of airlines this month to finalise new norms on international flying after an earlier proposal was opposed by established airlines.
The civil aviation ministry has proposed to replace the existing 5/20 rule on international operations with a credit-based policy that would allow new airlines to fly foreign routes after achieving required number of credits and establishing an accident free record.
Civil aviation ministry sources say that it may take up to two years for airlines to comply with the requirements before being eligible to fly abroad. "The proposal is being revised and will be put up before the cabinet for approval," said a civil aviation ministry official.
The proposal links the relaxation of rules for international operations with a policy on mandatory operations on regional and remote routes. The latter is known as route-dispersal guidelines and lays down capacity deployment norms for domestic airlines.
Domestic carriers will get flying credits based on the capacity deployment on metro routes, regional routes, routes in the North-East, Lakshadweep, Jammu & Kashmir and unused airports. Flying on regional and under-connected routes such as those to the North-East and unused airports will earn an airline thrice or five times more credits than operation on metro routes.
Airlines will require stipulated number of domestic flying credits, an accident free record and safety audit report in order to become eligible for international flights. For long haul flight exceeding six hours airlines would need to have three billion flying credits, according to draft rules.
Federation of Indian Airlines has been opposing moves to relax 5/20 rule.
"All the older airlines have flown for five years and are eligible for international flying even otherwise. Older airlines do not require credits to fly abroad. We feel that under the proposed norms, the idea of connecting remote and regional routes gets diluted. New airlines will deploy maximum capacity on metro routes or lucrative routes to earn flying credits, instead of unviable regional routes," FIA had earlier said opposing the relaxation of rules.
