The government has decided to allow Air India Express -- the low-cost subsidiary of national carrier Air India -- to start services to Kuwait.
In 2004, the government had reserved the Gulf sector for the state-run Indian and Air-India for three years, even as AI Express was flying it to utilise A-I's unutilised rights.
AI Express has now been designated as a scheduled airline to operate flights to Kuwait. According to civil aviation ministry officials, the Indian government has entered into an understanding with Kuwait to allow AI Express to operate services to the country. They said other routes on the India-Gulf sector could soon be opened to AI Express.
The move from the civil aviation ministry comes at a time when the Kerala government had asked the Centre's permission to start an airline that would fly to the Gulf countries. The civil aviation ministry had denied permission to the Kerala government on two grounds.
First, the Gulf routes are not open to any airline that has not met the minimum conditions to fly abroad. An airline needs to operate on domestic routes for five years and must to have a fleet size of 20 aircraft before flying on international routes.
According to ministry officials, the government is likely to relax the norms for flying abroad in the civil aviation policy. The minimum flying years' criterion may be cut down to two years from the present five.
The government had reserved the Gulf routes for Indian and Air India as they are most lucrative for the two state-run carriers. The routes were reserved for the two carriers as the government wanted to protect their revenues in the event of opening up of other international routes for private carriers.
Click here to search for lowest airfares!
Do you want to discuss stock tips? Do you know a hot one? Join the Stock Market Investments Discussion Group
© 2025