Thaindian News

New Delhi, Jan 19 (IANS) Leading low cost carrier (LCC) IndiGo Wednesday was granted permission by the aviation watchdog to operate international flights from August this year.”IndiGo has been granted international traffic rights by the government to operate services from several cities in India to Singapore, Bangkok, Dubai and Muscat during the forthcoming summer schedule,” a statement by the company said.

The permission came after the LCC fulfilled all the regulatory requirements of completing five years of operations and possessing a minimum of 20 aircraft.

One of the largest airlines in the country with a market share of 18.6 percent, IndiGo started operations in August 2006, and has a current fleet of 34 airbus A320 aircraft.

“IndiGo is delighted to receive these important traffic rights. This will hasten the process of Indian carriers taking back some of the market share that has been lost over the past many decades to foreign carriers,” the statement added.

According to the airline, the decision would also benefit other stakeholders in the Indian aviation scenario like airport operators.

However, the company did not disclose dates for the launch of international services.

Recently, another major Indian LCC SpiceJet was also granted permission to fly abroad as it completed the regulatory requirements earlier than IndiGo.

SpiceJet started its first international flight from Delhi to Nepal’s capital Kathmandu Oct 7, which was followed by flights from Chennai to Colombo in Sri Lanka Oct 9.

According to the aviation ministry statistics, the airline became the third largest passenger carrier in the country for the fourth quarter of the last calender year, when it carried 25.89 lakh (2.589 million) passengers.

The airline also made ripples recently by signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with European aircraft manufacturer Airbus for buying 180 A320 aircraft at a cost of $15 billion deal, the single biggest firm order for large jets in global aviation history.