IndiGo Chief Executive Officer Pieter Elbers has asserted that bilateral air service agreements are meant to be mutually beneficial, referring to several recent instances where India revised such agreements with other countries. He spoke out at a time when Gulf carriers such as Emirates and Qatar Airways are demanding increased flying rights to and from India.

The 2014 bilateral agreement between India and the UAE caps seat entitlements at 66,504 per week for each side. With Emirates exhausting its allocation and demanding more flights to be added, the UAE has been consistently voicing this out. India, on the other hand, has shown reluctance to ‘rights expansion’ as important hubs such as Doha and Dubai channel Indian traffic toward Europe and North America.

In this context, Elbers said that historically there have been international markets where foreign airlines fully utilised their entitlements to fly into India, while Indian carriers never did. “There were a massive number of flights into India and no operations by Indian operators. So, for a government to say, ‘first let’s use the existing pool of traffic rights and then look at new ones,’ I think that’s a completely fair and balanced approach.”

Referring to the revision of bilateral agreements with several countries in recent times, Elbers said, “I think the government of India has stepped forward and made a couple of new air service agreements with different countries in different parts of the world.”

Emirates President Tim Clark, however, had earlier criticised restrictions on air access for foreign airlines, which Elbers pushed back, saying making ‘more noise’ doesn’t make one more right.

“First of all, it’s called a bilateral agreement, right? That means two sides have to agree on something. If one side makes more and more noise, it doesn’t mean you are more right,” Elbers said at the International Air Transport Association (IATA). “It’s not that if one side says, ‘now we do it’ — that’s not how it works.”

IATA Director General Willie Walsh responded saying, this challenge on flying rights is not unique to India. While acknowledging the country’s progress in domestic aviation, he said, “As we see the expansion of Indian carriers into new markets, there will have to be a corresponding change to the approach for access.” – editor@nrifocus.com