New Delhi: The civil aviation ministry is looking to scrap restrictions on Indian carriers that want to start overseas services, a move that will benefit new entrants such as Tata-SIA joint venture Vistara but may displease existing airlines IndiGo, Jet Airways and others.
"You have limited them by laws like 5/20," civil aviation minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju Pusapati said in an interview, referring to the rule that Indian carriers should have been flying for five years and have 20 planes to be eligible for starting overseas operations.
"Allow them. Indians are capable people and they have proved this off and on." He likened the norm to a "reservation kind of a system" that keeps small players out and said the ministry was developing a formula to replace the eligibility rule.
24/11/14 Mihir Mishra/Times of India
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"You have limited them by laws like 5/20," civil aviation minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju Pusapati said in an interview, referring to the rule that Indian carriers should have been flying for five years and have 20 planes to be eligible for starting overseas operations.
"Allow them. Indians are capable people and they have proved this off and on." He likened the norm to a "reservation kind of a system" that keeps small players out and said the ministry was developing a formula to replace the eligibility rule.
24/11/14 Mihir Mishra/Times of India
