Six proposals received to start civil aviation operations

Even though the Indian civil aviation industry struggles in a tough operating environment, the government has received six proposals from private players to start commercial air operations during the last one year, K.C. Venugopal, minister of state for civil aviation said Tuesday.

Venugopal informed the Rajya Sabha that six applications seeking commercial air operations during the last one year have been received by his ministry.

Out of the six proposals, only Air Asia India has been granted initial NOC (no objection certificate) to start domestic scheduled air transport (passenger) services.

The government March 26 approved Malaysian low-cost airline AirAsia's proposal to set up a new airline in India in partnership with the Tata Group and the Arun Bhatia-promoted Telestra Tradeplace.

The other five proposals belonged to Airone Aviation, Zexus Air Services, Freedom Aviation, Air Carnival and Turbo Megha Airways.

In 2012, the Civil Aviation Ministry had received two proposals from Deccan Charters and Zav Airways to start operations in India.

The civil aviation sector in India has faced turbulence in recent years as stubbornly high jet fuel prices, interest costs and economic slowdown have troubled the already financially-stretched industry.