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Open skies evoke little response from airlines

Amrita Dhar in New Delhi

The civil aviation ministry's open sky policy has not drawn any encouraging response from the US and European airlines.

Few carriers have shown interest in the policy, with not a single US airline keen on increasing its number of flights to India.

The ministry had announced an open sky policy for about four months between December this year and March 2003.

During this period, airlines will be allowed to increase the frequency of flights or capacities from the destinations already being served. However, the offer has been restricted to airlines from the US and Europe.

The carriers from South-East Asia and West Asia have been barred from availing of the opportunity.

Civil aviation ministry officials said there had been a lukewarm response from the European airlines to the policy.

"Only Lufthansa has asked for permission to deploy a couple of extra flights to Bangalore. Air France has not shown interest in increasing flights during the period," a senior ministry official told Business Standard.

British Airways, too, has not taken a decision on the deployment of extra flights. The airline was citing paucity of staff as a reason behind the hesitation to increase flights, ministry officials said.

The only airline, which seems to be enthusiastic about the policy is Virgin Atlantic.

However, since the airline at present has a commercial agreement with Air-India, which has been the cause of some controversy of late, it remains to be seen whether Virgin is granted permission.

According to industry officials, the reason for such a response on the part of airlines is that outbound traffic dips during the winter months.

"Outbound passenger traffic drops almost 15 per cent during the winter months compared to summer, though inbound traffic goes up. An airline cannot just cater to inbound traffic as it will have to fly empty planes out of the country on the return trip," an industry expert pointed out.

The ministry might have seen a different response had the policy been extended to South-East Asian airlines as well.

According to experts, the tourist traffic had shifted from Europe and US to South-East Asia last year.

While the latter has seen an upswing in traffic by 25 per cent, Europe and the US have seen an equal negative movement.

Most of the South-East Asian airlines said if they were allowed to participate in the policy, they would increase their capacity by 10-15 per cent.

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