India eases rules to lift world's fastest-growing airline market

New Delhi

IT'S the news foreign carriers had been waiting to hear for years. After more than a decade of deliberations, India finally unveiled an aviation policy to open up the world's fastest growing major air-travel market.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government decided on Wednesday to permit domestic airlines to fly overseas provided they deploy 20 planes or 20 per cent of capacity, whichever is higher, on local routes. Earlier, carriers needed to have a minimum of 20 aircraft in their fleet and five years of domestic services.

The move benefits operators such as Singapore Airlines Ltd and AirAsia Bhd, two of South-east Asia's biggest airlines, and has the poten…