Modi 3.0 may increase quota for foreign flights
livemint.comAir India chief executive officer and managing director Campbell Wilsonsaid at the CAPA India aviation summit. Sensing an opportunity, several foreign airlines have firmed up plans to approach the government with their requests. “Today we have not exhausted the bilaterals, in terms of number of seats per week but we have hit the limit in terms of number of stations," Sanjiv Kapoor, executive vice-president, strategies of the Saudia Group told Mint.
“The relationship between the two countries is good. We expect that during those recurring discussions, we are hopeful that bilaterals will be expanded in terms of number of destinations and eventually also seats." The bilateral air service agreement between Saudia Arabia and India permits designated airlines to operate a total of 20,000 seats per week in each direction, subject to a limitation of 75 frequencies per week. However, it has limited eight stations in India: Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Chennai, Calicut, and Kochi, and three stations in Saudi Arabia: Jeddah, Riyadh, and Dammam.
“We will like to expand to more places such as Kolkata, Ahmedabad...the growth is coming a lot from Tier-2," he added. Similarly, Emirates, the largest foreign carrier for India with around 10% stake in the total international traffic to and from India, has also been seeking an increase in bilateral air travel rights between India and Dubai since several years as the carriers on both sides have already exhausted the cap of 65,000 seats per week. “We have had 65,000 seats in each direction since 2015.
That is nine years ago. If you are telling me that Indian market has not grown internally internationally in nine years particularly between India-Dubai market. Really?! The
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