 "Open-sky policy leaves out landing freedom")
The government will continue bilateral negotiations on the number of cities it will open for various countries beyond a 5,000-km radius from Delhi, even after it declares an open-sky policy for them. This means carriers from European or Saarc countries will have unlimited access, in terms of number of flights and seats, to only a few airports in India. Also, the terms of the agreement may vary by country.
"We have to discuss with all countries beyond 5,000-km on a reciprocal basis about the landing rights we will have in their country and (then decide) what rights they will have in our country," Civil Aviation Secretary R N Choubey said on Friday.
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Choubey said there would be two aspects in the open-sky agreement for countries beyond 5,000-km, as proposed in the draft civil aviation policy released last week: one based on the number of seats and the other on the number of cities.
"As far as the number of seats is concerned, it will be unlimited. But, landing points will still be a matter of negotiation," he added.
Choubey said the open-sky policy would come into effect from April 1, 2016. "Open-sky brings tremendous competition. The idea is to open the domestic market to competition in a graded manner."
At present, countries sign air service agreements, through which they decide the flights or seats per week to be allowed. Either there are various terms associated with the agreement, arrived at through bilateral negotiation, or no restrictions on flights, seats or landing points, also known as 'open sky'.
Experts said open-sky agreements also varied and restrictions did exist. At present, India has a full open-sky only with the US with no restriction on destination, aircraft and ticket pricing.
In the near open sky agreement with the UK, there is a restriction on frequency of flights to and from Mumbai and Delhi.
For Asean or Saarc countries, India has an open sky policy for more than a dozen tourist destinations.
| BLUE-SKY THINKING |
What is open sky?
Open skies for countries beyond 5,000-km radius of Delhi (essentially Saarc & Europe) with:
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Aviation analysts see this as a cautious move. "Placing restrictions and including negotiations for point of call means the government sees these measures necessary at least in the initial stages. However, open sky beyond 5,000-km, even without any restrictions, will have very limited or no impact as there is very low demand for additional bilaterals on these routes," said Kapil Kaul, chief executive officer, South Asia, Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation.
Kaul added that European carriers had unused bilaterals and there was scope for limited growth on these routes." Further, carriers in Latin America, Africa and Australia were unlikely to show interest, he said.
The previous civil aviation policy draft, released in November 2014, had talked about opening up Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore and Hyderabad as major hubs for international operations. However, after receiving requests from various other states, the Centre decided to drop these names in the revised draft.
A few experts said the move to restrict locations in the open sky policy would protect domestic airlines. "Pressure from the domestic carriers could be one of the reasons the government took a call to open up skies to limited airports. The Indian carriers have interline agreements with various foreign carriers to carry passengers from one destination to another domestically. However, protection of domestic carriers is followed in other countries as well. There is no open access for middle-eastern carriers in the US and the landing points are restricted," said an industry expert, who did not wish to be identified.