Indicating its intentions to fly abroad very soon, proposed airline AirAsia India on Wednesday, June 3 trashed the “bizarre” policy of allowing carriers to operate international flights only after five years of domestic operations.
“These are bizarre rules … that you can’t fly abroad before five years and 20 aircraft (fleet). That rule makes no sense. It is a negative for the Indian airlines. I, as a one-plane airline in Malaysia, can fly to India. India is the only country which has such a rule,” AirAsia group CEO Tony Fernandes said here.
Maintaining that the Indian airline industry has “not done a good job” to explain to the government the importance of aviation for the economy, he said “it is a shame that India has lost many years. See what new airlines in the region have done. India has lost because of vested interests even though it has a lot of talent and economic activities.”
Full report here Mint
