Civil Aviation Ministry Approves Operations of Airbus A-380 in India

The Union Minister for Civil Aviation, Shri Ajit Singh has decided to remove restrictions on flights of Airbus A-380 to India. Now, flights of A-380 to India will be allowed to airports which are equipped to handle them.  At present only 4 airports, i.e. Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore have the required infrastructure for operations of A-380. The decision has been taken after due consultations with the DGCA, Air India and Airports Authority of India. The operations of A-380 aircraft would be subject to overall traffic entitlements within the bilateral Air Service Agreements (ASAs) with different countries.  It has also been decided that wherever the entitlements are not expressed in terms of seats per week, the same should be rationalized and converted into seats per week before allowing A-380 operations to India from these countries.  If any Air Service Agreement (ASA) specifically prohibits operation of A-380 to India, the same will also be required to be amended before A380 operations from that country are allowed.  The rationalization of traffic rights from services per week to seats per week shall be done through mutual negotiations through Memorandum of Understanding.  Before operations of A-380 are allowed, all the airports shall have to get DGCA certification and make adequate preparation in terms of various services required. The operation of A 380s will help airports to generate more revenue, give more comfortable and luxurious travel to passengers, liberalize the Civil Aviation milieu in India and boost the Iimage of Indian civil aviation in the international market.  As per available information, Singapore Airline, Emirates and Lufthansa are interested in operating A-380 aircrafts in India on various international routes.