International traffic routes to be opened up

The Minister for Civil Aviation, Ajit Singh today announced that private airlines would soon get traffic rights to operate on international routes. The plan is to add about 500 to 600 new flights during the year to Europe, Asia and Africa. “We want to have more flights to various destinations.”

The government, he said, understood that aviation sector was vital for the economy and was initiating a slew of measures to prop up the industry. The initiatives set in motion included - allowing FDI; direct import of aviation turbine fuel; and traffic rights to private airlines under bilateral. Presently, only 30 per cent of the bilateral agreements were being used and by opening up to the private sector, there would be more international flights. International routes, he said, were profitable and this would ‘destress’ the industry a bit.

Singh said the aviation sector was under stress due to high operational costs, mainly due to prices of aviation turbine fuel. Internationally, ATF accounted for 20 to 25 per cent of the airlines operational costs, while in India it was over 40 per cent. High taxes imposed by the States was one of the reasons, hence the government had decided to allow direct import of ATF. “The airlines have to negotiate with the oil companies on the pricing.”