Vistara, the joint venture carrier between the Tatas and Singapore Airlines, may have to wait longer to fly international as the civil aviation ministry wants to wait for the Central Bureau of Investigation to complete its inquiry into allegations that the overseas flying norms were relaxed due to lobbying efforts of AirAsia. The Tata group holds stake in AirAsia also and the CBI is probing allegations that the company illegally paid government officials and lobbyists to get overseas flying norms relaxed.
Though overseas flying norms were relaxed by the current government in June 2016, the move began during the earlier UPA rule.
Earlier norms allowed carriers to fly international only after domestic flying experience of five years and after attaining a fleet of 20 aircraft. However, under the new policy, an airline just needs to have 20 aircraft to be eligible to fly overseas. The 20 aircraft have to be deployed for domestic operations and the 21st onwards can be used for international operations.
Vistara, which began operations in January, 2015 got its 20th aircraft in April and currently has 22 aircraft in its fleet so it can begin services to two overseas destinations.
The company applied for permission to fly overseas in June but has not heard anything from the civil aviation ministry so far. “We haven’t heard anything from the government. We are hoping there would be a decision soon,” a Vistara spokesperson told FE.
“We do not want a situation where a permission is given to an airline to fly abroad, and later we find out that there was an anomaly in the decision. We are deliberating on how to go about it. This is likely to take time,” a senior aviation ministry official said.
Another senior government official said it may not be appropriate to ignore the probe findings. “We are monitoring the CBI probe. We can’t say how much time will it take. We are also waiting for it,” the official added.