It will soon be a lot tougher for domestic carriers to fly overseas, as the Government wants to tighten the norms on opening international routes, by including new conditions.

Apart from the present norms of 20 aircraft and five years of operations in the domestic market, the airline’s financial strength, infrastructure capabilities as well as the composition of its fleet will be taken into consideration before allowing an airline to fly overseas.

“This has been done to ensure that an airline has the required financial and operational strength to operate in the highly competitive international market,” said a source.

According to sources in the directorate general of civil aviation, in case an airline does not have the requisite parking and landing slots at destination airports abroad, it will not be given permission to fly overseas. The aviation regulator feels that this would prevent carriers from starting operations without proper preparation.

Low-cost carrier Air Deccan will be one of the hardest hit by such a move, as it does not have airplanes with the range to operate long-haul international routes or parking and landing slots at overseas airports. If the Government follows the proposed rules strictly, Air Deccan may not even get permission to fly abroad till it acquires long-haul aircraft and parking and landing slots abroad.

Air Deccan, which has already applied to the Government to fly abroad, would probably have to reapply to the ministry after merging its infrastructure with Vijay Mallya-promoted Kingfisher Airlines. Mallya’s carrier has placed orders for long-haul aircraft as well as asked foreign airports for landing and parking slots.

... contd.