New International Flying Rights To Boost Local Carriers
India's airlines are likely to increase their share of the market of passengers flying abroad, with the aviation ministry granting them fresh flying rights to a number of overseas destinations.
Online, January 24, 2011 (Newswire.com) - India's airlines are likely to increase their share of the market of passengers flying abroad, with the aviation ministry granting them fresh flying rights to a number of overseas destinations.
The new flying rights, which were on hold for up to eight months, were awarded last fortnight by the ministry, with the largest chunk going to Jet Airways India Ltd, said two people familiar with the development, who did not want to be identified.
The country's international traffic has traditionally been dominated by overseas carriers. National flag carrier Air India was the only local airline flying out of the country until about a decade ago. This began changing in the middle of the last decade, with Jet Airways expanding to South Asia and beyond.
Naresh Goyal-controlled Jet Airways has been cleared to start new services to Europe, including flights to Rome and Amsterdam from Mumbai. India's largest airline by passengers carried has also been allocated additional rights for flight on Mumbai-Kuala Lumpur, Bangalore-Bangkok, Delhi-Bangkok, Mumbai-Abu Dhabi, Mumbai-Dubai, Mumbai-Male and Thiruvananthapuram-Sharjah routes.
Kaul of Capa said he expects Jet to open new routes in Europe, SpiceJet to maintain its operations in South Asia, Air India to expand its network and IndiGo and Kingfisher to focus on closer international routes in West Asia and South East Asia, which can be serviced through Airbus A320 aircraft.
This year, Air India is also expected to join the Star Alliance of global airlines, nominated by Lufthansa, while Kingfisher will join OneWorld, nominated by British Airways.