Norms for overseas flights may be reviewed

Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel today hinted that his ministry might review the existing policy of allowing domestic scheduled airlines to fly international routes only after they have flown for five years within the country.

"Govt policies are not frozen. they can be reviewed," said Patel, when asked whether the five-year restriction is being reduced.

Patel, who was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the Indo-US Aviation Summit 2007 in New Delhi, also said that there have been proposals to increase the FDI limit in the aviation sector, from the existing 49 per cent, especially in areas like non-scheduled operations, helicopters and sea planes.

Patel said, "India has a total of about 300 aircraft now and the number of air travellers comes to about 0.8 per cent of the population. By the time even 10 per cent of the population begins to fly, we will need about 5,000 aircraft."

Talking about the land acquisition problems for rehabilitating slumdwellers around the Mumbai airport, Patel said that the problem was almost solved and that some salt-pan land would soon be available for the rehabilitation programme.

Civil Aviation Secretary Ashok Chawla observed that US business had not shown much interest in the Indian aviation sector so far.

He estimated that India would require 1,000 aircraft in the next 12-13 years, while passenger traffic would go up six times from 32 million to 180 million, with investment opportunities in airports and infrastructure estimated to rise to around $120 billion.

India and the US also finalised a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to establish the US-India Aviation Cooperation Programme (ACP).

The programme is a public-private partnership between the US Trade Development Agency (USTDA), the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and US aviation companies which has been established to provide a forum for unified communication between the government of India and US private sector entities in India.

The ACP would focus on supporting activities relating to air traffic, air space management, expanding airport facilities, installing airport security and monitoring systems and enforcing airworthiness certification and regulatory systems.