Fares to zoom if 5/20 goes, say old airlines

New Delhi: Jet Airways, IndiGo, SpiceJet and GoAir on Tuesday warned of a steep hike in cost of domestic flying if the government removes the 5/20 rule under which an Indian carrier must be five years old and have 20 planes in its fleet to go abroad. These airlines, whose combine domestic and international flying market share is 78.3% and 21% respectively, have also said removing this rule will make Indian airports unviable along with restricting growth of aerial connectivity for small towns and remote parts of India.

The four airlines said if the government removes 5/20, it should also do away with route dispersal guidelines (RDG) under which an Indian carrier has to fly a certain percentage of its metro flights on remote and unprofitable routes in the northeast, Jammu and Kashmir and the Andamans. "Under the proposed changes, new carriers (read Tata Group's JV airlines Vistara and AirAsia India) can fulfil the requirement of going overseas by flying twoto-four planes for a year or two. Then they can add as many planes as they want for international flying. We cannot pull out our domestic flights and will be saddled with loss-making routes for perpetuity," SpiceJet promoter Ajay Singh said.
To Read the News in Full 24/02/16 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India