India lifts ban on airbus-380 operations

India on Monday lifted the ban on the operations of super jumbo, Air bus-380 in the country, Indian aviation ministry said. The ministry said during a high level meeting chaired by Indian Civil Aviation Minister that it was decided to remove restrictions on flights of Airbus A-380 to India."Now, flights of A-380 to India will be allowed to airports which are equipped to handle them," the ministry stated.The ministry stated that presently four airports in Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore were equipped with the infrastructure for operations of super jumbo airplanes."The operations of A-380 aircraft would be subject to overall traffic entitlements within the bilateral Air Service Agreements (ASAs) with different countries," it added.The ministry said as per available information, Singapore Airline, Emirates and Lufthansa are interested in operating A-380 aircrafts in India on various international routes.The ministry noted the operation of A 380s will help airports to generate more revenue, give more comfortable and luxurious travel to passengers, liberalize the Civil Aviation milieu in India and boost the image of Indian civil aviation in the international market.India had imposed a ban on the operations of A-380s due to concerns that foreign airlines would eat the high share of international air traffic, thus badly damaging the operations of state-run- Air India.A380 has the capacity to carry around 800 passengers in a single-class configuration and more than 500 passengers in a three-class set up. "The number of air passengers is expected to rise to 30 crore (300 million) by the end of 2020," Singh said.According to official estimates, at least 160 million people in India travelled by air in 2012. The figure is estimated to be 300 million by the end of 2020.