DGCA simplifies rules for Indian carriers to fly to new destinations abroad

As Indian carriers Air India and IndiGo prepare to expand their global presence in civil aviation, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has made it easier for Indian carriers to fly to new destinations abroad. Notably, the latest entrant, Akasa Air is also planning to make a debut in the international commercial airline business.

To this end, the civil aviation regulator has decreased the earlier 33 checkpoint assessment to just 10 checkpoints now. This has been done to make it easier for airlines to expand their network to destinations that have no airline services in place.

"The DGCA conducts this assessment to check the preparedness levels of Indian airline operators before permitting their operations to a new foreign destination. In order to further ease the process for grant of such permission the existing regulatory requirements have been comprehensively reviewed in consultation with all stakeholders and the current 33-point checklist has been rationalised and reduced to a 10-point checklist related to their preparedness for the intended operations, removing other generic and redundant provisions in the existing checklist," a DGCA official said.

"The objective of this rationalisation is to simplify and facilitate the process for Indian carriers to start operations on a new international destination and would significantly reduce the documentation/compliances required to be submitted by the operators. This systemic reform comes at a time when the Indian carriers are poised to expand their international footprint," the official added.

DGCA is a statutory body of the Government of India and has the mandate to regulate civil aviation in the country.