Indian airlines exhaust 80% of flying quota on key foreign routes

The Indian government’s policy to not grant any new flying rights to foreign nations within 5,000 km radius of the country till Indian carriers utilise at least 80% of the existing quota seems to have paid off with Indian carriers exhausting their quota with key nations.

According to updated data, utilisation by Indian carriers has crossed the mandatory 80% on routes to Doha and Singapore, where they had lagged for quite a long time.

“The utilisation on these routes has increased primarily on the back of IndiGo adding flights to these destinations. With the utilisation crossing 80%, these routes have become eligible for negotiations under the new rules,” a senior aviation ministry official said on condition of anonymity.

The official added that utilisation on routes to Dubai and Sharjah are already above 80% and utilisation between India and Kuwait is set to cross the 80% mark by the end of this summer schedule that ends in October.

Under the new civil aviation policy cleared by the cabinet in 2016, no new flying rights, also called bilateral air services agreement, will be increased till Indian carriers utilise at least 80% of the existing rights. However, an exception has been made with countries where Indian carriers do not have any plans to add flights and includes flights to countries like Nigeria and Malaysia.

The official quoted above further said that there are no plans to start negotiations with these countries. “Singapore is pushing for an increase in bilateral entitlements. Qatar has been trying to get an increase in bilateral flying rights since long now. But there are no firm plans yet,” the official added.

Even though rules allow negotiations after utilisation by Indian carriers cross the 80% mark, this government is not keen to allow any new seats to countries within 5,000 km radius of India unless Indian airline companies fully support it.

A case in point is the bilateral entitlements with Dubai, where carriers from both sides have utilised over 90% of the existing quota. The Indian government did not agree on increasing flying rights with Dubai, as Dubai authorities did not agree on the demand by the Indian government to provide desired slots at Dubai airport.

However, increasing bilateral entitlements with many of these countries became imminent as Vistara has sought rights to fly to some of these countries and the government will have to increase entitlements to provide quota to the Tata group-promoted carrier that plans to go international this year.

Vistara, in a proposal to the aviation ministry, has said it plans to connect Sri Lanka and the Maldives from Delhi, and Thailand from Delhi and Kolkata before October. In the second phase of international expansion, which begins after October and lasts till March 2019, the airline plans to connect destinations in Bangladesh, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia to Delhi, and Singapore to Pune.

Barring Sri Lanka, which has open skies with India, all other destinations will require the government to increase bilateral rights to be able to provide any new flying rights. increase bilateral rights to be able to provide any new flying rights.