India May Curtail MAS Flights In Tit-For-Tat Move

New Delhi: India's civil aviation authorities are reported to be threatening to reduce landing rights for Malaysia Airlines (MAS) in a tit-for-tat move which could impact on Malaysia's tourism industry.
It is believed that the Indians are resorting to such action after MAS was alleged to have asked that India's Air Sahara be not allowed to fly to Kuala Lumpur (KL) from New Delhi on grounds that passenger volume on this route was low.
Air Sahara had planned to start its New Delhi-Kuala Lumpur operations last month.
Airline industry sources said that the possible retaliatory move to restrict MAS to New Delhi could have serious ramifications on the Malaysian tourism industry as more Indians are opting to holiday in Malaysia.
A senior New Delhi-based airline official told Bernama that if India reduced the landing rights, then MAS flights from Kuala Lumpur to New Delhi could be down to four flights a week from the present seven.
The Kuala Lumpur-Mumbai route could see MAS flights cut to six from seven per week.
In total, MAS flies 27 times to major Indian cities weekly while Indian Airlines, Air India and Jet Airways have a combined total of 56 flights to Kuala Lumpur each week.
The sources said Malaysia's Transport Ministry had proposed a dialogue to solve the matter but so far the Indians had yet to respond.
11/04/07 P. Vijian/Bernama, Malaysia

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Categories: Foreign Apr 2007, General Aviation Apr 2007