Airline sector set to gain from new policy decision

New Delhi: Indian carriers with international operations can now look forward to picking up fuel at competitive rates from India for their outbound long-distance flights, thanks to the Annual Supplement to the Foreign Trade Policy (2004-09).
"The announcement made on Friday would also be applicable to Indian carriers in respect of their outbound operations, but not for domestic operations," Mr K.T. Chacko, Director-General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), told Business Line on the sidelines of an industry gathering.
This clarification should come as a boost to not only Air India and Indian Airlines but private sector airlines such as Jet Airways and Air Sahara as well, all of which operate international flights from India.
"Technically speaking, flights operated by airlines from India will not be going in for refuelling. Therefore, one will have to look at the fine print before it becomes clear as to whether we also benefit," said a senior official of airline of India that has international flights. Mr Kamal Nath had said that supplies of stores (food, beverages and other supplies) and refuelling of long-distance flights had emerged as a big business opportunity.
The policy announcement is likely to benefit oil companies in terms of increased sales to more airlines.
09/04/06 Ashwini Phadnis, K.R. Srivats/Hindu Business Line

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