New civil aviation policy: How it will benefit air travellers

Here are the key things that air travellers must know about the new civil aviation policy.

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: The Union cabinet on Wednesday cleared the much-awaited new civil aviation policy, thereby paving way for better fare options for flyers, strengthen regional connectivity and tap the sector's high growth potential.

Here are the key things that air travellers must know.

- Cabinet has approved capping of airfares at Rs 2,500 for 1-hour flights and Rs 1,200 for 30-minute flights.

- 5/20 norm  has been abolished and has been replaced by 0/20 norms. This implies that any airline company with 20 flights can fly international without being in domestic operation for a year.

- Refunds on cancelled tickets to be made within 15 days.

- These refunds will be applicable on all fares.

-More and more regional flight connectivity will be made. There will be atleaset one 2-tier or 3-tier city for connecting flight.

- Flight cancellation compensation of upto Rs 10,000  

-Govt to come out with separate regulations for helicopter operations.

-A "small levy" to be charged on all domestic flights for regional connectivity fund; Self-handling policy for airlines allowed.

-The policy seeks to create an eco-system to handle 300 million domestic passengers by 2022 and 500 million by 2027, and 200 million international travellers by 2027.