Under criticism from the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India for liberally gifting bilateral air traffic rights to foreign carriers, the Ministry of Civil Aviation has turned down requests from Gulf states to increase frequencies and access to more airports in India.
Civil aviation ministry officials led by joint secretary Prakash Sukul and Director Shubha Thakur held negotiations with 35 countries at the International Civil Aviation Negotiation Conference which concluded in Mumbai on Saturday. India signed air services agreements with 22 countries. Several of these relate to technical or air fare issues or revision to existing pacts.
On Saturday, ministry officials met delegates from Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and UAE. "The Gulf states want access to more airports. We have not agreed to it,'' the official said. The ministry has defended its policy on bilateral air traffic rights stating that it has to look into interests of all Indian airlines and not just Air India but in the wake of CAG report took a cautious stance.
Ministry officials, however, downplayed the issue saying these were just informal discussions with Gulf states.
The government has agreed to increase seat entitlements between India and Singapore and Austria." It will be addition of few hundred seats to Singapore,''a government official said. Singapore carriers have been allowed access to Hyderabad. “Singapore wanted access to more cities. We turned it down,” official said. For the first time Indian negotiators were accompanied by representatives of private airlines and airports.
