FIA opposes Govt’s proposal to change flying norms

THE HINDU,23JAN2015

The government’s move to relax international flying norms by doing away with the 5/20 rule and revise Route Dispersal Guidelines (RDG) for new airlines has been opposed by Federation of Indian Airlines (FIA) which represents incumbent airlines.

In a letter to G K Ashok Kumar, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, FIA has asked the government to stick to the current regime with minimal changes ‘to ensure continued servicing of national interests’.

Recently the government had proposed to remove the 5/20 rule which makes it mandatory for airlines to have five years of domestic flying experience with a fleet of 20 aircraft to become eligible for flying international. It had also proposed to revise the RDG which makes it compulsory for domestic airlines to deploy a certain percentage of their capacity in under-served areas in the North East, J&K and Andaman & Nicobar Islands.

“Over the last two decades, the RDG has resulted in more than 800 flights per week operating to these markets, significantly contributing to the increased welfare of the inhabitants of these regions,” FIA said.

“The twin criteria of 5 years and 20 aircraft were introduced to ensure that all new airlines would serve the domestic market adequately …not operating with minimum fleet during the qualification period,” the letter said.

“The new proposed policy is totally unfair and unjust because it proposes to not only alienate the rights already earned by the existing airlines in order to exclusively benefit the two new latest entrants [Vistara and AirAsia India] both of which are partnered by one industrial house [Tata Group], but also because it frees the new entrants from the socio economic requirements of serving the domestic market and transfer that burden to incumbent airlines instead,” the letter added.

The letter has evoked sharp reaction from the new airlines.

“The existing RDG and 5/20 rules distort the market forces and are detrimental to the long term growth of Indian aviation. We share the government’s vision of creating world-class international hubs in India,” a Vistara spokesperson said.

“The need of the hour is to do away with the restrictive practices and allow Indian airlines to rule the global skies as international connectivity provided by them will boost the economy through improved tourism which will help India earn the tag of a great investment destination,” the spokesperson added.