The Hindu Business Line : Decision on allowing pvt airlines to Gulf soon

The state-owned airlines could lose their monopoly of being allowed to operate exclusively to the Gulf region by the end of the month. A senior Government official told Business Line that a decision on which routes private sector ai rlines should be allowed to fly was expected within the next two-to-three weeks.

The private sector airlines would, however, be allowed to operate only by early next year when the three-year ban on operating to the Gulf expires. The implementation of the decision could impact the profitability of Air India, as the Gulf region is the second most important revenue generator for the airline logging revenues of Rs 1,591.04 crore during 2005-06 down from Rs 2,021.46 crore generated during the previous year.

In December 2004, while allowing private airlines to fly abroad, the Union Cabinet had permitted only the state-owned airlines and their subsidiaries to operate flights to the various regions in the Gulf, including United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

Seats utilised

At the moment the state-owned airlines are able to utilise only 49,348 of the 85,481 seats a week that they are permitted to operate to eight destinations in the Gulf. On some routes like between India and Qatar, the Indian carriers are able to utilise only 1,526 seats a week of the 10,892 seats that they are entitled to operate.

Similarly, Indian airlines are able to utilise 1,526 seats of their weekly entitlement of 10,967 to Bahrain. However, Dubai Indian carriers are able to offer 20,002 seats of the 21,950 seats, while on the India-Sharjah route Indian carriers offer 8,690 seats of the 10,206 seats they are entitled to.

Although Jet Airways and Jetlite are the only two private sector airlines that are currently allowed to fly abroad, the Ministry has received a request only from Jet Airways to operate to six points in the Gulf region, including Dubai, Qatar, Abu Dhabi and Kuwait.

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