Government Not Granting Any Non-Metro Airport As New Point Of Call For Foreign Airlines

The government is not granting any non-metro airport as a new point of call for foreign airlines to operate passenger services considering the significant imbalance in favour of such carriers, Rajya Sabha was informed on Monday.
     
The government follows a policy of promoting more international operations by Indian carriers from non-metro points either directly or through their own domestic and international operations, minister of state for Civil Aviation, V K Singh said in a written reply.
     
The minister also said that Indian designated carriers are free to mount scheduled operations to/from any airport to foreign destinations under the ambit of bilateral air services agreements concluded by India with foreign countries.
     
The air services agreements are bilateral in nature and reciprocity is maintained in such agreements, he said and added that in the past, due to the grant of multiple points of call to foreign countries, an imbalance has been created wherein foreign carriers have access to multiple points in India while Indian carriers have access to only one or two points.
     
As such, the government has noted the impact of granting foreign carriers unfettered access to Indian airports on the domestic aviation ecosystem and has taken a conscious decision in the interest of the Indian aviation ecosystem of not granting any non-metro airport as a new point of call to any foreign carrier for operating passenger services, the minister stated.