New Delhi: Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Thursday said the time has come to send a loud and clear message that foreign airlines' flights will not be allowed at the expense of Indian airlines.
On September 28, Lufthansa had to cancel its flights between India and Germany from September 30 to October 20 as the DGCA withdrew permission for them saying there are restriction on Indians who want to travel to Germany and this puts "Indian carriers at a significant disadvantage resulting in inequitable distribution of traffic in favour of Lufthansa".
During a press conference, Puri said, "The issue is not about allowing foreign carriers in or not. We are all for foreign carriers operating here. Make no mistake. But I think the time has come for the message to go out loud and clear that it will not be done at the expense of the Indian carriers."
"Under the regulated (air bubble) arrangements, we are not insisting on total parity. Even near parity will do," the minister added.
After the aforementioned Directorate General of Civil Aviation's (DGCA)decision that led to cancellation of Lufthansa's flights, Air India was forced to cancel all Frankfurt flights till October 14 as Germany withdrew permission for them.
Scheduled international passenger flights have been suspended in India since March 23 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
However, special international flights have been allowed since July under the bilateral air bubble pacts formed by India with around 16 countries, including Germany.
Puri said, "There is an opportunity in India for all foreign economic entities. But equally, where the commercial advantage is concerned, we also expect our carriers - when they go there (to those countries) - to also get those facilities."
08/10/20 PTI/Business Standard
0 comments:
Post a Comment