Foreign carriers demand more access to India

As foreign carriers clamoured for more access to the world's fastest-growing economy, tensions over plans to transform Air India into a global airline have rippled across the aviation sector on Tuesday as foreign carriers clamoured for more access to the world's fastest-growing economy.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi faces growing demands to reduce the size of capacity that can be deployed on many routes from India to and from India, now that India's flag carrier has been sold to the cash-rich Tata conglomerate.

The current limits on the amount of flying allowed between India and many markets date back to heavy losses at Air India around the beginning of the last decade, analysts said.

A huge overhaul of the airline, including the world's largest ever plane order for 470 jets, rekindled a debate over market access at a New Delhi aviation conference on Tuesday.

Dubai's Emirates, Kuwaiti carrier Jazeera Airways and Turkish Airlines all said there should be increases in traffic rights to and from India to meet demand. An Indian official said that both Vietnam and Indonesia wanted more flights.

The Turkish Airlines Chief Executive Bilal Eksi told CAPA India that we are not getting enough share from this market. Dubai has requested extra 50,000 seats a week on India routes.

He urged Indian airlines to order more big jets to meet demand without forcing passengers to change planes.

I think it's time that our carriers look at the international market with more focus. That's what we are pushing the airlines to do, and that process has already begun, Jyotiraditya Scindia said.

Most Indians currently use foreign carriers for long trips, often changing at Gulf hubs, with relatively few long-range jets based in the country despite a population of 1.3 billion.

The rebirth of Air India and the launch of a new Saudi carrier with dozens of jet orders has shuffled the deck and left Dubai's massive international hub flanked by new rivals.

Emeritus President Tim Clark welcomed the launches and said there was enough room for everyone without traffic curbs.

He said that there is so much demand there that none of us will be able to deal with it if we allow unconstrained growth.

Analysts said India's government is not in hurry to relax the curbs as it seeks to recapture traffic lost to foreign carriers, part of a wider initiative to create an economic powerhouse.

Kapil Kaul, head of the CAPA India consultancy, said there is evidence that the government wants a mega-carrier of size, scale and quality over the years.

I don't think they're even encouraging the discussion of whether other airlines like it or not, is 'we want to have a bigger brand and we want to have a bigger share'. India has granted more flights to Russia in one exception, according to Civil Aviation Secretary Rajiv Bansal.

India is not alone in making use of a post-war system of air traffic agreements to aid development, according to analysts.

The government is saying it's not about the airlines, but it's about India as a country: we want non-stop flights'', said Ameya Joshi, founder of the air analysis website NetworkThoughts.

The government would not take risks on traffic rights next year because it would not make sense to take risks now that it is an election year.