IA may get to fly more global routes

The government is likely to allow Indian Airlines to fly on more international routes as a part of the strategy to straighten its international operations. The new route options are being studied at present and a decision will be taken shortly.

"The government has been considering the option of giving more international routes to Indian Airlines. It also wants to fly to more global destinations. The new routes will be given in regions where we see a need for additional capacity," said a senior government official. Indian Airlines is expected to start new services to Hong Kong and Jeddah soon. It was also pointed out that with the induction of more wide bodied aircraft into the fleet, Indian Airlines will be able to add more flights in the key international routes.

The government is also exploring the option to allow domestic private carriers to fly to South East Asian countries. It wants to open these routes to the private carriers by the year end, said a government official.

Indian private carriers, which are now allowed to fly to SAARC countries, have also been demanding operations to South East Asia. Meanwhile, the civil aviation ministry is also assessing the report of the group of officials going into the restructuring of Delhi and Mumbai airports and is likely to send its final recommendations to the empowered group of ministers soon.

The inter-ministerial group had submitted its recommendations about three weeks ago after studying the report of global consultant ABN-AMRO on whether the ten bidders fulfilled the criteria laid down by the civil aviation ministry.

Ministry officials said it was unlikely that any of the ten bidders, including would be knocked off at this stage.

Asked what would happen if any of these bidders failed to meet the parameters, the officials said the general understanding was not to disqualify any bidder at this stage.