The Hindu Business Line : Open sky agreement with ASEAN to be delayed beyond 2011

New Delhi, April 23 The open sky agreement between India and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), which was to allow unlimited access to airlines from India and the ASEAN countries to each others markets, will not be signed by 2011 as planned.

The inability of the South East Asian regional grouping – which has 10 countries including Cambodia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand – to firm up an open sky agreement among its members is one of the reasons being given for the delay in a similar pact being inked with India.

In 2006, when steps were initiated to firm up the open sky agreement with ASEAN, the Ministry of Civil Aviation had opposed the implementation date of 2011.

Govt objection

Arguing that open sky agreements with countries having big and strong airlines and large fleets would hamper the international plans of domestic airlines, which had just started international operations, the Ministry had called for the implementation to be pushed to 2015-16 by when Air India would not only have completed the induction programme of 11 new aircraft but also stabilised its operations.

The Ministry had also pointed out that India has already agreed to a liberal bilateral air services policy with ASEAN, which allows designated airlines from ASEAN countries to operate a daily flight to the four metro cities and unlimited flights to 18 tourist points in India.

From the Indian side only Air India, Kingfisher and Jet Airways have a presence in the ASEAN region.

India-US deal

At the moment, India has an open sky agreement only with the US. The agreement allows any number of designated airlines from the US and India to operate between the countries. It also removes restrictions on frequencies or numbers of seats that the designated airlines can deploy.

As the agreement was firmed up in 2005, American Airlines has launched daily non-stop services between Chicago and Delhi while Continental Airlines flies a daily non-stop service between Delhi and Newark. From the Indian side, Air India has a daily non-stop service from Delhi and Mumbai to New York, while Jet Airways operates daily flights on the India-Brussels-US route.

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