Wednesday, April 01, 2015

Private airports seek easy overseas flying rules

Domestic airlines aspiring to start overseas operations but feeling restricted because of the government's policy on it have an unlikely ally – the private airports.

The Association of Private Airport Operators (APAO), in its feedback to the government on the revision of Route Dispersal Guidelines (RDG) and 5/20 rule – which currently permits only airlines with five years of experience and 20 aircraft to fly on international routes – has batted for a more "simplified" rule than the one the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) has come up with.

The MCA recently proposed to replace the existing 5/20 rule with domestic flying credit (DFC) rule, which would allow airlines to operate on overseas routes only after they log in specified flying credits for deploying flights to remote and unused airports.

The ministry has defined DFC as the capacity deployed by airlines as Available Seat Kilo Meter (ASKM) in regular scheduled operations multiplied by a factor devised for providing incentive for operating on remote area routes.
01/04/15 Praveena Sharma/Daily News & Analysis
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