Kingfisher Airlines Ltd, together with its low-fare airline affiliate Deccan, wants to fly direct flights to two dozen destinations outside India as part of an ambitious launch of international operations that are scheduled for early next year.
Deccan, the airline that Kingfisher is likely to use to fly overseas, has sought government permission to fly to the US, the UK, Germany, Canada, Switzerland, South Africa, China, Australia, Thailand, Malaysia, Nepal, Sri Lanka as well as some countries in West Asia.
State-run National Aviation Co. of India Ltd’s Air India flies to 40 international cities from India and Jet Airways (India) Ltd flies to about 10.
In September, JetLite (India) Ltd, formerly Air Sahara and now controlled by Jet, sought approvals for daily flights between Chennai and Colombo as also New Delhi and Kathmandu, besides permission to fly to Dubai, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.
Both Kingfisher Airlines and Deccan are not eligible to fly international routes yet. Current civil aviation rules do not allow an airline with less than five years’ domestic operations to fly overseas and a proposal to dilute that rule is still pending with a group of ministers who are scheduled to meet later this month.
02/11/07 Tarun Shukla/Livemint
Sunday, November 04, 2007