PTI

New Delhi, Apr 29 (Saturday, 5-30 am IST): The monopoly of public sector airlines on government business has ended with officials being allowed to fly with private airlines and advised to make bookings in advance to take advantage of discounted fares.

"The air travel on official account would now be permissible on airlines, other than Indian airlines and Air India, provided the criteria of selection of alternative airline is based on better and more competitive prices," an order issued by Department of Expenditure said.

Apart from official business, this order is also applicable to Leave Travel Concession. The decision to end the monopoly of state-owned airlines in domestic and international travel has been taken to bring down the government expenditure.

The order said the officers should also try to make their bookings in advance to the extent possible so that benefits of discounted fares can be obtained.

The government has also asked the officials to make bookings through Internet and said the service charge levied on booking through the net will be reimbursed.

The order also allows officials to avail of the schemes offered by airlines, which are co-branded with the credit cards with prior approval of competent authority. Relaxing the LTC norms, the government has also allowed its employees who are not entitled to air travel to avail of the facility provided the reimbursement of the fare is restricted to the entitled class by rail other than Rajdhani and Shatabadi.

If the airfare is more than the train fare which an employee is allowed, the reimbursement would be limited to the train fare.