Singh opens up skies with unified 7-plus-7 flight formula

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has given his nod to the 8216;seven plus seven8217; air bilateral policy as well as the previous government...

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has given his nod to the 8216;seven plus seven8217; air bilateral policy as well as the previous government8217;s unilateral open skies initiative with ASEAN countries. Both had been approved by the NDA Government but were referred to Singh for his clearance before implementation.

The green signal to the 8216;seven plus seven8217; air bilateral policy is expected to bring about a significant increase in flight services to India. Under this policy, any country can mount up to 14 services through its designated carrier to any two international airports in India without much fuss.

The policy, however, lays down one condition 8212; the carrier will have to first exhaust its quota of seven flights to one international airport of its choice before sending in an application to operate the remaining seven services to a second airport in the country. Beyond 14 flights, the approval will be granted on a case-by-case basis.

Though the approval to this policy had been given by the NDA Government in December last year, its implementation was held back following the announcement of the elections in January. Then the matter had to be referred back to the PMO because of a change of government.

It8217;s learnt that applications from various carriers to mount more services under the policy had been pending with the Civil Aviation Ministry for the last five months. Apparently, there are only about 10 foreign carriers which operate more than 14 flights to India, so the policy was widely welcomed by many countries and their carriers struggling to increase their services to India.

Official sources said the policy is expected to end haggling over air bilaterals while also increasing the connectivity to India. 8216;8216;Instead of negotiating on every single bilateral, India can now offer this package of seven plus seven to any country without many conditions. If, however, any country has not been reciprocating to requests by Indian carriers, we also have the option of withdrawing benefits that can be extended under this policy to that country. And it is not just one or two but 14 flights in question,8217;8217; said a senior official.

The PM has also cleared the open skies policy with ASEAN countries. This, too, had been referred to Singh as it could not be implemented due to the announcement for early elections.Under the initiative, the designated carriers of all ASEAN countries will be allowed to mount daily flights to Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata without signing a fresh air bilateral agreement. Further, these airlines will be given free access to introduce flights to 18 other destinations, which include Gaya, Amritsar, Goa, Kochi, Lucknow and Vijaywada. The idea is to increase the tourist flow into the country.