India Plans Sweeping Reforms to Connect Remote Areas by Air
- Three options presented for controversial `5-20' rule
- Shares of Indian airlines rise as the draft is proposed
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India unveiled a plan to fund airlines’ losses if they fly to remote areas as Prime Minister Narendra Modi aims to connect small towns and villages in a country with the world’s seventh-biggest land mass.
The government will compensate carriers for losses on flights to the remote northeast, Jammu and Kashmir and the country’s islands, according to a draft aviation policy unveiled Friday. The fund -- 80 percent of which would come from the federal government, the rest from states -- would use proceeds from a 2 percent charge the government intends to levy on all air tickets.