Govt may replace 5/20 with 5000km open-sky rule with riders

The Union Aviation Minister, Gajapathy Raju, has gone on record calling the 5/20 rule an "archaic" law. While there has been a lot of to and fro on what the new legislation should look like, CNBC-TV18 learns that a new proposal has been drawn up which will look to allow an airlines easier access to neighbouring countries, reports Sindhu Bhattacharya.Sources say that the ministry, which is in the process of drafting an aviation law, will look to open the skies that lie within 5,000 km radius, but may exclude countries such as those from the Gulf along with Turkey and Singapore.The new policy may be rolled out by 2018, sources say, and not immediately. The 5/20 rule currently stipulates that carriers serve at least five years in operation and have minimum 20 aircraft before being allowed to fly abroad.It is learnt that the policy may have a further surprise: it may propose delaying or shelving of the corporatization of the Airports Authority of India (AAI), which may throw a spanner in the works for its listing.