Flights of fancy for foreign tourists

NEW DELHI: With India now being one of the most sought after tourist destinations, government is planning to cash in on the opportunity by giving a fillip to the civil aviation sector to further boost tourist inflow into the country.
According to civil aviation ministry officials, government is contemplating allowing foreign tourist charter flights on major airports in the country.
As per the open sky policy the government has been gradually liberalising the conditions for allowing chartered flights at a larger number of airports.
Except for popular destinations like Goa, Jaipur, Agra, etc., charters are now permitted to fly Indian nationals as well, to other tourist destinations, officials said.
The government has already allowed new points of call for foreign airlines and has agreed to the utilisation of the Indian landing entitlement in other countries by foreign carriers on mutually beneficial terms.
A meeting of empowered group of ministers (GoM) would be meeting on Wednesday to discuss various issues including selection of a financial consultant to advice the government on airport modernisation, strategic partnership and private participation.
The GoM had shortlisted ABN-Amro, Ernst and Young and KPMG, for appointment of the financial consultant for privatisation and modernisation of the Mumbai and Delhi airports.
The empowered GoM comprise Finance Minister Jaswant Singh, Disinvestment Minister Arun Shourie, Law Minister Arun Jaitley and Civil Aviation Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy.
The government had decided to restructure and modernise the international airports at Mumbai and Delhi through formation of joint ventures between the Airports Authority of lndia (AAI) and private players, to be selected through an international competitive bidding process.
The ministry had also constituted a committee to prepare a roadmap for the civil aviation sector covering all relevant aspects including restructuring of airports with a view to developing a world-class airport infrastructure with one or more international hubs; affordability and connectivity in the domestic aviation sector and development of regional air connectivity within the country.
India has a well-developed and large civil aviation network. There are 122 airports in the country, controlled by the AAI, of which 11 are international airports. The air services of the country were liberalised in 1994 through a move towards an open-skies policy of the government.
The total passenger traffic handled by Indian airports in 2001-02 was over 40 million, while the cargo traffic handled was around 854,000 tonnes.