5/20 rule ‘anarchic’: Raju

Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju has termed the 5/20 rule, which regulates Indian carriers flying abroad as “anarchic”. He also said that he was trying to change it so that new airlines can connect with foreign destinations.

What is 5/20 rule?

According to the ‘5/20 rule,’ all airlines in India need five years of domestic flying experience and at least 20 aircrafts in its fleet in order to fly abroad. The rule has been a subject of heated debate between domestic airline operators. This was proposed in the new draft civil aviation policy.

Present status:

• While the private airlines which are allowed to fly abroad — IndiGo, Jet Airways, SpiceJet — have all opposed the proposal to abolish the rule, new airlines Vistara and AirAsia India are in strong favour of relaxing the norm.
• However, the Civil Aviation Ministry is still undecided on whether to keep the 5/20 rule, abolish it or replace it with some other regulation in the civil aviation policy which is yet to go to the Union Cabinet.