The Hindu : India gifts three planes to Afghanistan

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, May 08, 2002

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India gifts three planes to Afghanistan

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI MAY 7. The Civil Aviation Ministry has gifted three Air-India Airbus-300-B4 aircraft to Ariana Afghan Airlines as part of a reconstruction package to Afghanistan.

The aircraft, which were operating on the Gulf route, were going to be sold to Indian Airlines. They will now be replaced with Airbus-310s that the Maharaja will hire on lease later this month.

The $7-million gift was pledged by the Minister for Civil Aviation, Shahnawaz Hussain, to the visiting Afghan Minister for Civil Aviation, Zalmai Rasool, here today.

The Ministry of External Affairs will reimburse the cost of the aircraft to AI through the Civil Aviation Ministry.

The Afghan team will visit Mumbai tomorrow to inpect the planes.

Mr Rasool said the 265-seater airplanes would be operated to European destinations including London, Frankfurt and Paris. There are also plans to open new destinations such as Tashkant, Teheran and possibly, Islamabad.

None of the Indian carriers is yet flying to Afghanistan. Mr. Hussain said that talks were on with China for use of its airspace and, if successful, west-bound Indian carriers would avoid the Pakistan airspace permanently and fly over Leh and China.

At present, Ariana operates between Kabul and Delhi, Kabul and Dubai, Sharjah through its two 120-seater Boeing 727 aircraft.

Under the bilateral air services agreement between India and Afghanistan, Ariana can operate four times a week to Delhi and twice to Amritsar.

It operates twice or once with about 66 per cent load factor.

Mr. Rasool said Afghanistan was looking to India for help in rebuilding civil aviation infrastructure, its airports, technical support, training of pilots, air traffic controllers, in computers, management and finances.

Besides, the three Airbus aircraft, AI will `lease' a team of 12 pilots, instructors and trainers to Ariana for training their pilots, who at present fly Boeing 727 on the Kabul-Delhi sector and to Dubai and Sharjah.

Ariana pilots would be trained on the Airbus-300 aircraft. After the initial three-months training, the Afghan airline will sign in some retired pilots from Indian Airlines or Air India to be present in the cockpit for ''the cockpit to be safe''.

Later, speaking to mediapersons, Mr. Hussain said the first Airbus would be delivered to Ariana by the end of this month.

Answering questions, he said the Comprehensive Civil Aviation Policy was being given final touches in consultation with the Planning Commission and the Finance Ministry. Road shows were over for the leasing of international airports in four metros.

He said there was no plan as of now to cancel the operating licence of Jet Airways which had sought security clearance for some of its directors.

The Civil Minister will follow the decision of the Home Ministry, he said.

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