Even as the government is set to scrap the 5/20 rule that prohibits Indian carriers to fly overseas before they have completed five year of domestic operations, it does not mean that new airlines like Vistara and AirAsia can take to foreign routes immediately. This is because the civil aviation ministry is likely to ask the carriers to first have the experience of flying on domestic routes for around two-and-a-half years. Further, a system of domestic flying credits would also be built in the new norms to improve regional connectivity.
The civil aviation ministry officials met airlines companies and Federation of Indian Airlines on Wednesday to review to proposed credit-based policy on domestic flying credits.
The proposal is that even though the time period is brought down, new airline companies will need at least 200 domestic flying credits to fly international. They will also need an accident-free record, and a safety audit report. Existing airlines will need only 300 DFC.
Ujjwal Dey, associate director of FIA, said, “It is in a preliminary state as the policy is at the draft stage, and the what the final outcome would be after many meetings and reviews. Today, we have asked for two more weeks to review the documents, to see what will be the impact on the aviation sector.”