The government is likely to finalise the new civil aviation policy soon. The Minister of State for civil aviation Mahesh Sharma has said that the ministry was waiting for certain inputs from stakeholders which are expected within a week. The new Draft Civil Aviation policy was announced last November and was circulated to all stakeholders for consultations before putting it in place. The policy has already been delayed couple of times, first the ministry had given a target date of end-January for notification. That was later changed to mid-February and again to mid-March.
In January last this year all airline representatives had met civil aviation secretary V Somasundaran for discussion on the 5/20 rule and RDGs. The Minister responding to the issue said that the decision on removal of 5/20 rule would not depend on individual carriers' interests and further added that the government never said 5/20 rule will be removed and the issue was still being discussed and nothing has been finalised as yet. Under the 5/20 rule, Indian carriers have to complete five years of domestic operations and have a fleet of 20 aircraft before they are allowed to fly international.
The new civil aviation policy will however need Cabinet approval on issues such as the proposed listing on stock exchanges of the Airports Authority of India and making Air Navigation Services a new corporate entity, before any official declaration. The second half of the Parliament’s Budget session is between April 20 and May 8 and after getting inputs of the stakeholder it can be put in there.
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