The Naresh Chandra Committee is likely to oppose the adoption of an open sky policy for foreign airlines. The committee is, however, in favour of opening international operations to private domestic carriers in a phased manner.

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The committee is of the opinion that as Indian carriers are not strong players in the international market, opening skies to foreign airlines will prove to be detrimental for them. Sources said the committee felt that India should, for the time being, continue with a bilateral system of negotiating flight rights with foreign carriers.

Open skies will be damaging for Air-India and Indian Airlines as neither have the fleet capacity to compete with foreign players. Even if the private domestic carriers are allowed international flight rights, they will lack the experience to compete successfully, the committee feels.

To attract foreign airlines, a more liberalised bilateral policy can be adopted which will also protect the interest of Indian carriers, according to the committee.

The recommendations of the committee, which will be sent to the civil aviation ministry, assumes significance in view of the fact that the government has offered open skies to Association of South East Asian Nations countries and Sri Lanka. These offers were made at the level of the Prime Minister's Office and the civil aviation ministry is still working out details.

The committee is also likely to recommend international flight rights to domestic private airlines. Official sources said the committee had suggested that private carriers be allowed to fly to international destinations in a phased manner. The committee has recommended that the phasing should be in terms of the number of flights allowed and not destinations.

Sources said the committee was of the opinion that private airlines should be given flight rights to countries beyond the Indian sub-continent as this would help garner additional revenue. In effect, international operations could help private airlines to bring down fares in the domestic sector.

According to official sources, 262 international frequencies remain unutilised by India as none of the government-owned airlines have enough aircraft to operate on these routes.