New Delhi, March 10: In the wake of recent cases of large-scale off-loading of passengers from international flights, the government, in a major decision on Friday, gave standing clearance to all airlines, including foreign ones, to operate additional flights or bring in larger aircraft on existing routes till March-end to clear additional passenger rush.For this purpose, the airlines would have to get flight clearances from Director-General Civil Aviation (DGCA), "which will be granted immediately", a civil aviation ministry spokesperson said.
The decision was taken at a meeting of DGCA with leading international carriers to review the situation and find a solution.
It was decided that the situation would be reviewed around March 25 and, if required, the facility of additional flights or enhancing capacity of the airlines would be extended beyond march, she said.
The meeting, attended by officials of 32 airlines including Air-India, British Airways, Gulf Air, Lufthansa, Aeroflot, KLM and Emirates, took note of recent cases of off-loading of passengers by several foreign carriers and stressed immediate steps to meet the situation. At the meeting, some airlines offered to operate additional flights immediately or provide extra capacity by re-routing some flights operating nearby through India, she said.
It was also decided that for Air traffic control purposes, DGCA would grant flight clearance number immediately to the airlines which apply.
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