The government is close to reaching a consensus on the civil aviation policy, including the contentious flying abroad norm for airlines, also known as the '5/20 rule'.
The 5/20 rule requires an airline to have five years of domestic flying experience and 20 aircraft in its fleet before it can fly to overseas destinations. The government’s plan to ease the 5/20 rule has divided the aviation industry with the incumbent airlines opposing any move to relax the norms and the new airlines Vistara and AirAsia India pressing for abolition of the rule. This has led to several delays in finalising the civil aviation policy which the government had planned to implement from April 1, 2016.
“(As far as) 5/20 and other issues raised in the draft civil aviation policy (are concerned), a degree of consensus has already emerged,” Civil Aviation Secretary R.N. Choubey told reporters on the sidelines of the 29th anniversary of Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS).
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The draft civil aviation policy, unveiled in October last year, will be sent for the approval of the Cabinet later this month.
“We have already done a couple of rounds of inter ministerial consultations. We will now be in a position to take the matter to the Cabinet this month,” Mr. Choubey said.