Restrictions Imposed by DGCA on Cargo Flights

After a gap of almost three decades, the central government has amended its Open Sky Policy for foreign cargo carriers with a view to ensuring fair and equal opportunity in the air cargo capacity offered by Indian registered operators. The operations of foreign ad hoc and pure non-scheduled freighter charter service flights will now be restricted to six airports. These are Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad, according to the orders issued by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation on September 18, 2020. The Open Sky Policy had been adopted by the central government in 1990 that allowed air taxi-operators to operate flights from any airport, both on a charter and a non-charter basis and to decide their own flight schedules, cargo and passenger fares. The earlier policy on the subject promulgated by the DGCA in May 1992 had stated that cargo flights by scheduled and non-scheduled operators, both Indian and foreign, may be cleared freely from airports where customs and immigration facilities are available. Cargo flights into India were also permitted. DGCA data reveals that while Indian non-scheduled operators carried 4,752 passengers in the international segment in 2018-19, no cargo was carried that year. The fresh limitations on airports that can be used will not apply to all-cargo flights operated under humanitarian and emergency needs through the United Nations and other multilateral bodies of which India is a member.