The Government plans to dilute rules for permitting domestic carriers to fly abroad. It is also considering seeking for more financial information from existing and new airlines that seek out to fly in international skies. As per the current regulation, an Indian carrier must have a fleet of at least 20 aircraft and have flown in the domestic skies for 5 years before it is permitted to start international flights.
The need to liberalize the rules comes in the wake of several international airlines from the West and East Asia starting international flights from the day they start operations. The financial disclosures of potential airlines should reveal their knowledge of the aviation sector's dynamics and illustrate that they possess adequate liquidity to cover aviation business start-up and initial operational costs. The decision to include financial scrutiny comes following Kingfisher’s decision to withdraw all its international flights due to its poor financial health.
The Kerala Government too is eager to launch an airline to operate flights between the State and West Asia. The operations from Kerala are now being dominated either by foreign carriers like Emirates, GulfAir and Air India Express. Foreign airlines control about 65% of all global traffic from India and in recent years several start-up airlines from the Gulf and Southeast Asia have launched flights to multiple locations in India.