Indian Airlines (IA) has shot off a letter to the civil aviation ministry protesting against the route rationalisation worked out by the ministry between Indian Airlines and Air-India (A-I).
The ministry has recently drawn up a route rationalisation on the Gulf and Southeast Asia sectors for the two national carriers effective from this summer.
Indian Airlines said in the letter the rationalisation was more favourable to Air-India and it should be re-worked, official sources said.
A major point of controversy is that Air-India will have the first right of refusal, in terms of capacity utilisation, under bilateral agreements with countries.
Indian Airlines said the destinations had not been properly distributed between the carriers. For instance, Indian Airlines can operate only from Kozhikode to Bahrain and Qatar, while Air-India can fly from all other stations in India. It is also likely that the lucrative Dubai sector will go to Air-India.
As far as the Southeast Asian destinations are concerned, Air-India has rights to fly from all destinations in India to Malaysia, which sees passenger load factors of about 70 per cent in peak season, while Indian Airlines has been restricted to fly only from Chennai.
In case of Thailand, Indian Airlines has rights to fly terminator flights to Bangkok, while Air-India can operate hopping flights to Japan via Bangkok.
Air-India can operate all direct flights to Singapore, while Indian Airlines can fly from Bangalore and Chennai, and can operate hopping flights via Bangkok.
The Gulf and Southeast Asia sectors have been a bone of contention among the national carriers for some time now.
In fact the ministry
