National Aviation Policy

In a big push to its reform agenda, government approved the country’s first National Civil Aviation Policy

“Connecting the unconnected and serving the un-served is the motto of the civil aviation policy”

MAIN HIGHLIGHTS:

1. Allowing new domestic airlines to fly abroad quickly and opening up the skies for European and South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries.
2. Start-up airlines can now fly abroad after operating at least 20 planes or 20 per cent of their total flying capacity, whichever is higher, on domestic routes.
3. India will have an open-sky policy for countries beyond the 5,000-km radius from Delhi on a reciprocal basis. This means that airlines from European or Saarc countries will have unlimited access, in terms of number of flights and seats, to Indian airports, leading to increased flight frequencies with these countries.
4. As a part of its regional connectivity scheme, passengers will be charged Rs.2,500 for an hour’s flight on regional routes by the airlines.
5. The government will provide financial support to fund airlines’ losses on such un-served routes.
6. Government opens up skies for more flights -This will be done through “a small levy per departure” on all domestic routes except in remote and north-east States. Ceiling on airfares will be proportionate to the flying hour.
7. Route dispersal guidelines have been amended to add six more sectors to the metro routes.
8. As per the guidelines, on such north-east and other routes, airlines are mandated to fly 10 per cent of their total capacity they deploy on metro routes.