New Delhi: The civil aviation ministry may consider taking away unused bilateral rights with existing airlines and give them to other carriers, including the new entrants who may be allowed to fly abroad.
On lucrative European routes, Indian carriers use less than 10 per cent of the capacity allocated to them, leaving most of the market share to foreign airlines. In the Asia-Pacific region, foreign carriers have a 55 per cent share. On India-US routes, domestic airlines hardly fly, given the unlimited rights they have.
"New airlines will be encouraged to fill in the gaps ... but conditions such as flying to tier-II cities may be set as pre-conditions for foreign flight allocations," said officials.
The civil aviation ministry wants the criteria to fly abroad be based on technical and financial parameters rather than the number of years of operation or the number of aircraft.
"The India-US route is largely being fed by Gulf carriers," said Robin Pathak, aviation consultant and a former Indian Airlines director.
08/03/15 Jayanta Roy Chowdhury/Telegraph
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On lucrative European routes, Indian carriers use less than 10 per cent of the capacity allocated to them, leaving most of the market share to foreign airlines. In the Asia-Pacific region, foreign carriers have a 55 per cent share. On India-US routes, domestic airlines hardly fly, given the unlimited rights they have.
"New airlines will be encouraged to fill in the gaps ... but conditions such as flying to tier-II cities may be set as pre-conditions for foreign flight allocations," said officials.
The civil aviation ministry wants the criteria to fly abroad be based on technical and financial parameters rather than the number of years of operation or the number of aircraft.
"The India-US route is largely being fed by Gulf carriers," said Robin Pathak, aviation consultant and a former Indian Airlines director.
08/03/15 Jayanta Roy Chowdhury/Telegraph
