In a bid to open up the aviation sector and give a thrust to tourism, the government announced a new policy for chartered aircraft operations, allowing Indian passport holders to take charter flights abroad for tourism purposes.

"Inbound and outbound charters will be permitted only for tourism packages. Tourists availing charter flights will need to pay for the entire package involving two-way air travel, accommodation, sight-seeing and other land arrangements prior to the departure," Civil Aviation Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy said at a meeting of the Indian Association of Tour Operators in New Delhi.

The new charter policy, approved by the Union Cabinet late last month, also stipulated that tourists travelling on inbound and outbound charters would have to spend between one and four weeks in India or at overseas destinations.

Inbound charters will be permitted to all stations and customs, and immigration facilities will be provided at short notice at the airports.

All restrictions regarding the size of the aircraft and frequency have been removed for outbound charters, Rudy said. Tour operators, however, would have to organise inbound charters maintaining a ratio of 2:1 in the number of inbound and outbound tourists, he added.

The obligation of 2:1 will not be required in case of outbound charters with an aircraft size of 9 or less passengers or in the case of charters to religious pilgrimages like Haj.

Severe penalty has been introduced like cancellation of all charters for two years to prevent any misuse. Rudy also said in the next six months air traffic to Goa will be streamlined in such a way that it can provide landing and take-off facilities to any number of aircrafts.