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Air India's first right to fly overseas is coming in the way of attempts by private airlines to fly on more overseas routes. Existing laws give Air India the first right of refusal on overseas routes as it is the national carrier.
Flights between two countries are determined by air services bilaterals which are exchanged between two sovereign nations.
So, the number of flights between, say, the US and India are determined by the bilaterals that the governments of these two countries sign.
What is fast becoming a big sore point for private airlines is that there are several routes on which Air India is not flying itself and is also not giving up its rights to allow other airlines to operate, sources claim. This is creating a situation where the expansion plans of private sector airlines to destinations such as Dubai, Singapore, Thailand and the CIS countries are getting blocked.
What compounds the situation is the recent report of the Comptroller of Auditor General (CAG), which blames the Ministry of Civil Aviation for being liberal in exchange of bilaterals.
No policy change
There is also no move to bring about any policy change to allow Air India to go in for a revenue-sharing mechanism so that the airline earns a fixed amount of revenue by allowing another airline to operate on a route which the national carrier is not operating.
Such a system existed till a few years back but was done away with.
Questioned on why the Government was not making any changes to the existing rules which favour Air India, official sources indicated that there was a feeling that making any drastic change to existing policy could see action being taken against the bureaucrat concerned.
In the past, Air India and the former Minister for Civil Aviation, Mr Praful Patel, have been criticised for giving up lucrative bilateral rights to other airlines, including to points in the Gulf.
Currently, it is estimated that the Indian side utilises only 30-35 per cent of the bilateral rights which have been exchanged. This, despite the request of both full-service and low-cost airlines pending with the Government.
The Delhi-based low-cost airline, IndiGo, had recently applied for permission to operate more flights to West Asia which was not granted. Similarly, the proposals of SpiceJet and Jet Airways to operate more international flights are also pending with the Government.
Bilateral deals
A study by the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation shows India has bilateral air services agreements with 108 countries with 72 foreign airlines operating to and from destinations in India, while Indian carriers operate to about 25 countries.
Apart from Air India, Jet Airways, Kingfisher, JetLite, IndiGo and SpiceJet are the only airlines which are allowed to operate regular overseas flights from India.
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