The Federation of Indian Airlines (FIA), a body of domestic airlines, largely opposed to the removal of the 5/20 rule, which is one of the options being examined by the draft civil aviation policy, is to meet with Ministry of Civil Aviation officials on December 30 to submit its views.
The FIA has Jet Airways, JetLite, IndiGo, SpiceJet and Go Air as members. The body has already sent its comments on the draft civil aviation policy to the Ministry. But the Ministry feels that FIA should be heard out before a note is prepared for the Cabinet to take a view on the draft policy and its proposals.
Industry dividedThe FIA website shows that Rahul Bhatia, promoter of IndiGo, is the President of the body. IndiGo is opposed to the removal of the 5/20 rule which states that a domestic airline must have a fleet of 20 aircraft and have flown in the domestic skies for five years before it becomes eligible for international flights.
The airline industry is divided on the issue. New entrants like AirAsia India and Vistara are pressing for the removal of the rule while older players like Air India and IndiGo have called for its retention.
The Ministry has received about 450 comments and suggestions from various stakeholders and Ministries, a senior official said.
The Ministry hopes to complete consultations in early January and soon thereafter move a note to the Cabinet. “The idea is to give the various Ministries two weeks in January to go through what is proposed in the draft policy and have the draft policy placed before the Cabinet around the third week of January,” the official said.
Regional connectivityThe official added that all domestic airlines have said that the proposal of having a domestic flying credit system will be ‘difficult’ to implement while some have called for doing away with the idea of having a new category of scheduled commuter airlines to promote regional air connectivity. Instead, the stakeholders have suggested that any air operator who wants to operate regional routes should be allowed to do so.