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The civil aviation ministry is soon going to move the Union Cabinet on the proposal to allow private domestic carriers, now operating to SAARC countries, to fly to ASEAN nations.
The ministry is considering granting air services rights to these private carriers on the basis of certain formulae, including their domestic route network, the number of destinations they are operating and economically unviable but strategically important sectors such as the northeast, official sources told PTI in New Delhi.
Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel is likely to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh next week to discuss certain issues, including allowing private domestic carriers to fly to the ten southeast Asian nations. The matter may come up at the Cabinet meeting this month-end.
Asked about the number of flights Indian carriers, including the private ones, would be allowed to operate to ASEAN, they said the ministry could consider the domestic route dispersal of all Indian carriers.
The sources said the civil aviation ministry would seek "in-principle" approval of the Cabinet to its proposal to allow private carriers to operate to ASEAN nations including most sought after destinations like Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok.
Most of the ASEAN nations have already conveyed to the Indian government their willingness to grant "designated carrier" status to multiple carriers from India, including Air-India and Indian Airlines.
Granting of multiple designation clause has been incorporated in the air services agreements proposed to all the ten ASEAN nations, besides Pakistan and Maldives.
The private airlines, Jet Airways and Air Sahara, which have been allowed to fly to SAARC destinations, have already started operating to Colombo and Kathmandu and are considering launching flights to Dhaka.
The decision to allow them to fly to destinations in ASEAN was taken by the erstwhile National Democratic Alliance government, after the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee made an announcement at the Indo-ASEAN meet in Bali in 2003.
After the announcement, the government decided to permit designated airlines of ten ASEAN nations the facility to operate daily services to four metro cities besides unlimited access to 18 other tourist destinations in India, subject to reciprocal rights to Indian carriers.
The additional flights, under the offer made by India to the ASEAN, were subject to the terms of the existing commercial agreement with the already designated Indian carriers.
Similar rights were also granted to Sri Lanka, with the addition that their designated airlines could operate a daily service to two other metro cities of Hyderabad and Bangalore.