Now, India-China in flight row

New Delhi: Soon after 'resolving' the Kuwait issue, the Centre is doing yet another tightrope walk on the issue of more flights with China. India is yet to give permission to the Great Wall of China, a cargo airline, to fly to Chennai and Mumbai. And in return, China has so far not cleared Jet to fly to Shanghai and Indian Airlines to Guangzhou. As a result, among Indian carriers only Air India operates four flights a week to Shanghai four times a week. This despite the booming business ties between the two countries.
Highly placed government sources say India has so far not given clearance to the Great Wall of China for security reasons. "According to intelligence agencies, the main shareholder of this airline was a company that was blacklisted by US agencies because of its interests in certain businesses. Now India is told that the ownership has changed. A decision on this carrier will be taken by this month-end,'' said sources. More Indian carriers are likely to get clearance only after a decision is taken on the Chinese cargo airline.
07/07/07 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India

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Categories: Cargo Jul 2007, Foreign Jul 2007, Jet Airways Jul 2007