Aviation’s 5/20 rule
Union
Civil Aviation Minister, Mr. Ashok Gajapathi Raju has backed the demand for
scrapping of 5/20 rule. During the recently concluded civil aviation
conference, he told that the current rules for allowing airlines to fly abroad
on the basis of five years of experience and 20 aircrafts in their fleet had no
scientific meaning. And hence, the rule should be scrapped.
What is 5/20
rule?
According
to the ‘5/20 rule,’ all airlines in India need five years of domestic flying
experience and at least 20 aircrafts in its fleet in order to fly abroad. The
rule has been a subject of heated debate between domestic airline operators.
This was proposed in the new draft civil aviation policy.
Present status:
While
the private airlines which are allowed to fly abroad — IndiGo, Jet Airways,
SpiceJet — have all opposed the proposal to abolish the rule, new airlines
Vistara and AirAsia India are in strong favour of relaxing the norm. However,
the Civil Aviation Ministry is still undecided on whether to keep the 5/20
rule, abolish it or replace it with some other regulation in the civil aviation
policy which is yet to go to the Union Cabinet.
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