Asean may be open to Jet, Sahara soon

Praful Patel to meet PM; Cabinet to take final decision

The civil aviation ministry is soon going to move the Union Cabinet on the proposal to allow private domestic carriers, now operating to Saarc countries, to fly to Asean region.

The ministry was considering granting air services rights to these private carriers on the basis of certain formulae, including their domestic route network, the number of destinations they were operating and economically unviable, but strategically important sectors such as the Northeast, official sources said.

Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel is likely to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh next week to discuss certain issues, including allowing private domestic carriers to fly to the 10 Southeast Asian nations. The matter may come up at the Cabinet meeting this month-end.

Asked about the number of flights Indian carriers, including the private ones, would be allowed to operate to Asean countries, they said the ministry could consider the domestic route dispersal of all Indian carriers.

Most of the Asean members have already conveyed to the Indian government their willingness to grant "designated carrier" status to multiple carriers from India, including Air-India and Indian Airlines.

Granting of multiple designation clause has been incorporated in the air services agreements proposed to all the 10 Asean nations, besides Pakistan and the Maldives.

The decision to allow them fly to destinations in the Asean was taken by the erstwhile National Democratic Alliance government, after the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee made an announcement at the Indo-Asean meet in Bali last year.

After the announcement, the government decided to permit designated airlines of 10 Asean members the facility to operate daily services to four metro cities, besides unlimited access to 18 other tourist destinations in India, subject to reciprocal rights to Indian carriers.

The additional flights, under the offer made by India to the Asean, were subject to the terms of the existing commercial agreement with the already designated Indian carriers.

Similar rights were also granted to Sri Lanka, with the addition that their designated airlines could operate a daily service to two other metro cities of Hyderabad and Bangalore.

Crossing the barrier

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• Proposal to allow private domestic carriers, now operating to Saarc countries, to fly to Asean region
• Most of the Asean members have already conveyed to India their willingness to grant "designated carrier" status