Foreign carriers hit an air pocket

Clampdown likely next peak season.

The Civil Aviation Ministry is planning to restrict the number of flights by foreign airlines to India during the next peak season "" November 2005 to March 2006. There can also be restrictions on the airports these carriers can fly to.

The allotment of additional flights will be based on the bilateral rights the carriers have utilised, while the allocation of airports will be guided by the traffic situation at that time.

"The usage pattern of the liberal bilaterals entered into with countries will be an important parameter in deciding the number of additional seats and flights during the open sky period," Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel told Business Standard today, pointing out that India already had liberal bilateral agreements that carriers of other countries could make use of.

India had commercial air-services agreements with about 100 countries and airlines of 51 countries operate to India. Last year, international airlines used 65 per cent of the bilaterals, while Indian carriers used only 30 per cent.

Airline industry sources said the move might be designed to protect the interests of the Indian carriers which recently got permission to fly overseas.

Hitherto, international carriers could fly as many flights as they wanted to any airport in the country, provided they took prior permission for five months starting November. This was intended to take care of the sharp surge in the passenger traffic in the peak season.

"The permission will be based on the demand and the requirement of seats will be met," said Patel.

The proposal will be announced by the government by the end of this month, so as to give international carriers enough time to plan their flight schedules.

Government sources added that the tourism ministry had been pressing for a limited open-sky policy. The government had set up a group of ministers with the tourism minister, civil aviation minister and railway minister as members to oversee overall development of tourism.

The government's decision to follow an open sky policy during 2003-04 had resulted in international airlines adding more than 2,75,000 additional seats on their India flights. In 2004-05, these airlines had demanded 5,85,000 additional seats. Emirates alone had planned as many as 600 flights to the country.

During the non-open sky policy period (the off-peak season), carriers will have to follow the conditions laid down in the bilateral air services agreement India has with each country. The agreement specifies the number of flights carriers from each country can operate to the other as well as the cities they can fly to.