The Centre should remove both the 5/20 rule and the existing route-dispersal guidelines, the Federation of Indian Airlines (FIA) has said. The route dispersal guidelines stipulate which routes the airlines must fly within the country.
In an informal chat with the media, FIA members said that if the Centre is to remove the 5/20 rule and ask the older airlines, which the Association represents, to follow the route dispersal guidelines then domestic fares will surely go up. The FIA, which represents existing airlines like Jet Airways, IndiGo and Air India, categorically said that it was merely seeking a level playing field for all players in the market.
“Domestic fares will go up (because) who will fly to Dehradun, Gorakhpur, Imphal, Dimapur, Hubballi and Nanded? It (removing 5/20 but forcing existing airlines to follow RDG) is not protectionism, it is reverse discrimination. You cannot say in isolation that 5/20 does not exist anywhere in the world; that is a fact. But you have to follow it up with a second question that RDG also does not exist (anywhere),” Aditya Ghosh, President, IndiGo, argued. FIA claims that the new civil aviation policy, if implemented in its current form, will force FIA members to continue to operate on their existing routes while new players AirAsia and Vistara will be free to start flying abroad after flying on a few domestic routes and not have such an extensive domestic network.
“They claim that 5/20 should be removed because it exists nowhere in the world, and because it exists investments do not come, 5/20 needs to go because Indians are not using bilaterals,” Ajay Singh, SpiceJet promoter, said.
Wolfgang Prock-Schauer, Chief Executive Officer, Go Air, and Ragini Chopra, Vice-President - Corporate Affairs & Public Relations, Jet Airways, were also present at the meeting.