Jet makes a ‘major coup’

With border incursions and trade deficits grabbing the headlines on the Sino-Indian front of late, there has been a low profile but nonetheless significant development in cross-Himalayan ties.
On June 14, India’s Jet Airways started up the first direct flights connecting Mumbai and Shanghai, bringing the commercial capitals of two of the world’s fastest growing economies closer together physically and symbolically. But of even g reater consequence is the fact that Jet simultaneously became the first foreign airline to be granted what is called “fifth freedom traffic rights” by China.
This refers to the rights of an airline from one country to land in a second country and pick up more passengers before flying on to a third country. Jet’s daily flights to Shanghai thus proceed to San Francisco in the United States, allowing the airline to route passengers directly from both Mumbai and Shanghai to the U.S.
That the first non-American or non-Chinese airline to connect the United States and China is an Indian one is a “major coup” according to sources in the Indian embassy in China, who say negotiations leading up to the deal were arduous.
Although the provision for a bilateral granting of fifth freedom rights was built into a civil aviation agreement signed between the two countries in 2005, when Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao visited New Delhi, it took almost three years for Jet to finally win Chinese government clearance.
The reason for the foot dragging on the Chinese side was that New Delhi had at one point blocked the entry of Chinese cargo carrier Great Wall Airlines to Mumbai and Chennai, reportedly due to key nuclear facilities being located near these two airports.
21/07/08 The Hindu

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Categories: Foreign Jul 2008, Jet Airways Jul 2008