Opening up of several new international
sectors and progressive increase in number of flights are major highlights of
the new international traffic rights approved by Union Minister of Civil
Aviation Shri Ajit Singh for allocation to Indian
carriers for the next three seasons i.e. winter 2012, summer 2013 and winter
2013. The new allocations are expected to give a major boost to Indian carriers
and spur growth of the Indian civil aviation sector as a whole by considerably
improving connectivity of Indian cities with international
destinations.
As
the allocation for Air India and Air India Express for winter 2012 had already
been approved, the present approvals for them cover summer and winter 2013. Air
India and Air India Express have been allocated all traffic rights as per their
requets by giving them priority over all other Indian
carriers. The following tables give details of the traffic rights allocated to
airlines in terms of services per week (s/w):
Air India and
Air India Express:
|
Name of the Airline
|
Traffic Rights upto Summer 2012
|
Traffic Rights upto Winter 2012
|
Traffic Rights upto Summer 2013
|
Traffic Rights
upto Winter 2013
|
|
Air India & Air India Express
|
471 (s/w)
|
577 (s/w)
|
650 (s/w)
|
691 (s/w)
|
Other Airlines:
|
Name of the Airline
|
Traffic Rights upto Summer 2012
|
Traffic Rights upto Winter 2012
|
Traffic Rights upto Summer 2013
|
Traffic Rights upto
Winter 2013
|
|
Jet Airways
|
417 (s/w)
|
497 (s/w)
|
539 (s/w)
|
602 (s/w)
|
|
Indigo
|
116 (s/w)
|
137 (s/w)
|
151 (s/w)
|
172 (s/w)
|
|
Spicejet
|
70 (s/w)
|
130 (s/w)
|
186 (s/w)
|
230 (s/w)
|
|
Total (Other
Airlines)
|
603 (s/w)
|
764 (s/w)
|
876 (s/w)
|
1004 (s/w)
|
|
Total (All Airlines)
|
1074 (s/w)
|
1341 (s/w)
|
1526 (s/w)
|
1695 (s/w)
|
The traffic
rights have been allocated to Indian carriers on the following routes for the
first time:
Air India:
Delhi-Rome-Madrid/ Barcelona; Delhi-Moscow; Delhi-Sydney/
Melbourne; Mumbai-Nairobi, Mumbai-Al Najaf (Iraq)
Jet Airways:
Mumbai-Jakarta; Delhi-Barcelona; Mumbai-Zurich;
Delhi-Tashkent; Mumbai-Ho Chi Minh City
Spicejet:
Lucknow- Al Najaf (Iraq); Varanasi- Al Najaf (Iraq);
Delhi-Macau; Delhi-Ho Chi Minh City
With the allocation of new traffic rights the
increase in traffic entitlements of airlines is approximately 60% over the
existing traffic rights in next three seasons.
Increase in number of international flights will also enhance
competitiveness among airlines and is expected to bring down fares benefitting passengers. Further, advance approval for the
next three seasons will help airlines to plan their schedules in time, get
timely approvals and necessary clearances from authorities including those from
destination countries.
Fresh bilateral negotiations proposed:
Shri Singh has also directed to hold fresh
bilateral negotiations to explore possibilities of enhancing additional traffic
rights with those countries with whom existing traffic rights have almost got
exhausted. These include Singapore, Thailand, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Saudi Arabia,
Oman, Iraq, Macao and Afghanistan.
***
MA/DM