Government may relax eligibility criteria for Indian carriers flying abroad

New Delhi: The government has begun consultations on relaxing the eligibility criteria for allowing Indian carriers to fly abroad, Rajya Sabha was informed.
"Consultations have been made with Directorate General of Civil Aviation ( DGCA) to explore the possibility to relax eligibility criteria based on international practices," Minister of State for Civil Aviation KC Venugopal said while replying to a question.
As per the prevailing norms, an Indian carrier can qualify to operate international services only after it has flown domestically for five years and has 20 aircraft.
Venugopal was asked by AIADMK member AW Rabi Bernard whether such consultations had begun and whether the move would benefit airlines like GoAir or new entrants like Tata- SIA.
To a question, he said no proposal was being considered by the Civil Aviation Ministry to privatise Air India.
Read News In full 17/12/13 PTI/Economic Times