India opens skies to foreign airlines for three months >From Indo-Asian News Service
New Delhi, Oct 17 (IANS) The Indian government Friday took a major step towards liberalising the domestic aviation industry by extending the "open sky policy" to all foreign airlines for three months beginning December this year. In the first move of its kind, all foreign airlines, including those from the Persian Gulf, will be allowed to enter Indian skies in the peak tourist period without entering into bilateral agreements with state-run Air-India and Indian Airlines. The move, being seen as a precursor to the government's comprehensive open sky policy, will see foreign carriers from Europe, North America, Southeast Asia and the Gulf operating larger aircraft or more flights to India. "The three month period, which will start December and end in February next year, has especially been chosen to enhance tourist traffic into the country," an aviation ministry source told IANS. "We have got favourable responses from 12 foreign carriers so far and we are expecting others to come forward to take advantage of this facility," the source said. "We will, however, not compromise on commercial agreements of Air-India and Indian Airlines by taking this step." Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had recently announced an open sky policy for the 10 member countries of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN). Reacting to Vajpayee's announcement, Civil Aviation Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy had said India needed to open its skies to countries other than ASEAN members. "The policy is not only for ASEAN. It is the beginning of our commitment and a part of our Look East policy," he had said. "It will revolutionise aviation, tourism and trade and will have a multiplier effect on the economy. Every reform process witnesses resistance by monopolies of the government, but we have to think of our economy." --Indo-Asian News Service ########################################################################## # Send submissions for Goanet to [EMAIL PROTECTED] # # PLEASE remember to stay on-topic (related to Goa), and avoid top-posts # # More details on Goanet at http://joingoanet.shorturl.com/ # # Please keep your discussion/tone polite, to reflect respect to others # ##########################################################################
