New Delhi: Opening of the skies to foreign and private domestic airlines and liberalisation of the entire aviation sector in the country will mark the New Year, as the Government worked through 2003 to unveil a revolutionary Civil Aviation Policy next month (January, 2004) to enhance competition and make flying easier and cheaper.

These major initiatives were watershed developments in India's aviation history this year when the world celebrated the centenary of man taking to the sky.

Even as a high-level Committee appointed by the Civil Aviation Ministry submitted a roadmap for the aviation sector for the next decade, the Government this month decided to allow private domestic carriers to fly to SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) countries, including Pakistan, and give freer access to airlines from SAARC and the ASEAN (Association of South-East Asian Nations) nations to Indian destinations.

India and Pakistan also decided to resume from January bilateral aviation links, which were snapped following the terrorist attack on Parliament on December 13, 2001.

The path-breaking offer to the airlines of the ASEAN nations to fly into four Indian metros and 18 major tourist destinations without any restriction was made by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee at the Indo-ASEAN summit in Bali, Indonesia.

During the year, the Ministry saw Shahnawaz Hussain passing on the mantle to Rajiv Pratap Rudy, though in the process the Civil Aviation portfolio was downgraded from the Cabinet rank to the Minister of State status.