Turkey & Kuwait seek more than doubling of flying rights to India | India News – Times of India
NEW DELHI: The CEOs of Turkish Airlines and Kuwait’s budget carrier Jazeera have sought more flights to more Indian cities as they say the existing bilaterals are fully exhausted while demand for travel has risen several fold.
The air service agreement (ASA) between India and Turkey allows a daily flight between Istanbul and Delhi and Mumbai each. Turkish Airlines CEO Bilal Eksi told TOI at a CAPA summit here Tuesday: “We have requested additional seven weekly frequencies for Delhi and Mumbai routes each. We have also requested to be allowed to operate to at least six more Indian destinations including Ahmedabad.”
Jazeera CEO Rohit Ramachandran told TOI that an air service agreement (ASA) of 2007 allows 12,000 weekly seats per direction between Kuwait and eight Indian cities. He said Kuwait has requested for an additional 16,000 weekly seats and also sought to be allowed to fly to eight more Indian cities. “Kuwait’s population is 45 lakh, of which 11 lakh are Indians.
When the bilaterals were given, there were 3 lakh Indians in Kuwait. Over 55% of people travelling between the two counties do so via the Gulf. So neither Indian nor Kuwait carriers are able to benefit from the rising travel,” Ramachandran said.
Jazeera currently flies to places like Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru and Kochi. Jazeera currently has 20 Airbus A320s in its fleet and will add 13 more over the next 12 months. “We want to fly to places like Trichy, Goa, Lucknow, Amritsar and Jaipur. Over 90% of the traffic on our India flights is point to point and the beyond connecting traffic is in single digits,” he said.
India — a mega source for international traffic — has in the past few years not been giving additional bilaterals while taking steps to strengthen desi airlines. Now the Tata Group has drawn up major plans for its airline business led by Air India. Over 300-aircraft strong IndiGo has still has over 500 planes on order. New player Akasa will soon be eligible to fly abroad. The government’s bilateral policy keeps the interest of Indian carriers and Indian passengers in mind as bilaterals are now aligned to demand coming to both from Indian side and not just the foreign side.
Given bilateral constraints, IndiGo has wet-leased wide body aircraft from Turkish to operate between Delhi and Istanbul. Asked how this partnership is going, Turkish CEO Eksi said: “This is going very well. Mumbai-Istanbul will also be served by a wet leased Turkish wide body aircraft soon, possibly May 1. But the date as to be decided by IndiGo.”
The air service agreement (ASA) between India and Turkey allows a daily flight between Istanbul and Delhi and Mumbai each. Turkish Airlines CEO Bilal Eksi told TOI at a CAPA summit here Tuesday: “We have requested additional seven weekly frequencies for Delhi and Mumbai routes each. We have also requested to be allowed to operate to at least six more Indian destinations including Ahmedabad.”
Jazeera CEO Rohit Ramachandran told TOI that an air service agreement (ASA) of 2007 allows 12,000 weekly seats per direction between Kuwait and eight Indian cities. He said Kuwait has requested for an additional 16,000 weekly seats and also sought to be allowed to fly to eight more Indian cities. “Kuwait’s population is 45 lakh, of which 11 lakh are Indians.
When the bilaterals were given, there were 3 lakh Indians in Kuwait. Over 55% of people travelling between the two counties do so via the Gulf. So neither Indian nor Kuwait carriers are able to benefit from the rising travel,” Ramachandran said.
Jazeera currently flies to places like Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru and Kochi. Jazeera currently has 20 Airbus A320s in its fleet and will add 13 more over the next 12 months. “We want to fly to places like Trichy, Goa, Lucknow, Amritsar and Jaipur. Over 90% of the traffic on our India flights is point to point and the beyond connecting traffic is in single digits,” he said.
India — a mega source for international traffic — has in the past few years not been giving additional bilaterals while taking steps to strengthen desi airlines. Now the Tata Group has drawn up major plans for its airline business led by Air India. Over 300-aircraft strong IndiGo has still has over 500 planes on order. New player Akasa will soon be eligible to fly abroad. The government’s bilateral policy keeps the interest of Indian carriers and Indian passengers in mind as bilaterals are now aligned to demand coming to both from Indian side and not just the foreign side.
Given bilateral constraints, IndiGo has wet-leased wide body aircraft from Turkish to operate between Delhi and Istanbul. Asked how this partnership is going, Turkish CEO Eksi said: “This is going very well. Mumbai-Istanbul will also be served by a wet leased Turkish wide body aircraft soon, possibly May 1. But the date as to be decided by IndiGo.”
