West Asian airlines to be hit if smaller towns are off limits

Nearly 85-90% of the air traffic in India is clocked at the six identified metro hub airports

Plans of West Asian airlines Emirates, FlyDubai and Qatar Airways to expand operations in India may be affected by an aviation ministry proposal to restrict foreign carriers from adding new flights to airports beyond Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore and Hyderabad.

Airlines like Emirates, Etihad Airways, Qatar Airways and Lufthansa now fly to Jaipur, Kozhikode, Ahmedabad, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Goa, Lucknow and Pune.

Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapati Raju Pusapati was quoted in a recent media interview as saying foreign airlines had grown because they served destinations beyond the metros. Raju said the government would allow foreign airlines to operate out of hub airports at the six metros but Indian carriers could fly out of any international airport.

While the government will not review points of call already accorded to foreign airlines, it is unlikely to grant them new seat entitlements or points of call beyond the six metros. It hopes this will allow Indian airlines to realise their growth potential.

Nearly 85-90 per cent of the air traffic in India is clocked at the six identified metro hub airports. The measure is unlikely to have a severe impact on traffic carried by foreign airlines for now, but it may hinder their expansion plans.

The measure will, however, affect Emirates, which flies to Ahmedabad, Kochi, Kozhikode and Thiruvananthapuram apart from the metro hubs. FlyDubai has services to  Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Kochi and Trivandrum. Qatar Airways, too, flies to Amritsar, Ahmedabad, Goa, Kozhikode and Kochi.

Etihad Airways will gain from its alliance with Jet Airways, because the Indian airline will connect 23 Indian cities to Abu Dhabi over time. Etihad Airways flies to 10 cities in India, half of them--Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Kochi, Kozhikode and Trivandrum--beyond the metro hubs.

All airlines refused to comment.

"Unfortunately this (measure to limit foreign airlines to the six metros) benefits the private airport operators and does not help. All Indian carriers have rights to fly from any airport in India to the Gulf, but they do not. Allowing foreign airlines in, say, Jaipur and Ahmedabad has allowed residents of these cities to fly to the Gulf at the same price as from a metro. Do we want to deprive them that," a senior executive with a West Asian airline said on condition of anonymity.

"The proposed plan to restrict international carriers future expansion to just the top six airports goes against the spirit of liberalisation and equitable growth across all regions of India," said Amber Dubey, partner and India head of aerospace and defence at global consultancy KPMG.

"Tourists from the US, EU or Far East coming to Varanasi, Amritsar, Bodh Gaya, Tirupati, Goa or Srinagar will have to take multiple hops across different airlines to make it to their destinations. Ditto, for Indians travelling from non-metro cities to global destinations," he added.

"What India needs is a complete policy reversal in aviation. We should go for unbridled open skies, with global airlines free to operate any number of flights at any Indian airport. This will help improve the local economy, employment, investment and tourism. Sixty-seven years of protectionism has got Indian aviation nowhere. It is time to test new ideas," Dubey said.