The Hindu Business Line : Airlines flying into `open sky'

THE Government's `open sky' initiative for a three-month period starting December this year is getting enthusiastic response from international airlines.

The German airlines Lufthansa said that it planned to apply to the Government for increasing its Bangalore-Frankfurt flight from three times a week to a daily service from December 2003 to February '04.

"We also wish that the Government would consider extending the open sky policy to cover a longer period of time from November-March in order to meet the increasing traffic demand'', the airlines General Manager, Passenger Sales, India, Mr Wener Heesen, told Business Line.

Similarly, from West Asia, Gulf Air and Kuwait Airways are keen to take up the offer while the UK-based airlines, Virgin Atlantic Airways and British Airways, could also look at the feasibility of operating more flights during the period. "Kuwait Airways welcomes the initiative taken by the Government. We will definitely explore the possibility of taking the fullest advantage of the Government's decision even though this will probably mean having to alter and re-plan our aircraft rotation schedule during that period," the airlines' Senior Regional Director, Indian sub-continent, Mr Abdulnasser Bahrami, said.

Mr Bahrami said that keeping in mind that there were close to 400,000 expatriate Indians in Kuwait, Kuwait Airways would have "very strong and compelling" reasons to consider such additional services or use bigger aircraft on routes to India. The Government had stated that it would follow an open sky policy between December 2003 and February 2004. International airlines will be allowed to operate additional flights during the period after entering into commercial agreements with either Air India or Indian Airlines.

While welcoming the steps initiated by the Government, BA's Country Manager, Mr Alok Sawhney, said that the airline had sought certain clarifications on some of the requirements for it to avail of the offer.

"The notification has reference to the requirement of a commercial agreement with AI. As we do not have such an agreement with AI, we have sought clarification on this aspect. The clarification is awaited before we take the next step," Mr Sawhney said. While emphasising that the airline was "encouraged" by the offer, he added that there was a need to have a longer term approach in order to make it operationally feasible.

Similarly, a VAA spokesperson said that the airline would like to build on the London-Delhi-London services. "We will, of course, want to build on our existing services between London and Delhi. As the period involved seems to be for three months only, the cost of mounting operations to other cities such as Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad may be prohibitive but not necessarily unworkable," an airline spokesperson said.

The office of the President and Chief Executive, Gulf Air, Mr James Hogan, said that while the airline may be in a position to take up the offer, it would look at operating additional flights to the existing points in India where commercial agreements with the Indian carriers are already in place. "We are committed to our existing customer base first and foremost, but continue to review and evaluate new destinations such as Hyderabad on an ongoing basis with a view to introducing new services soon," the official said.

On the issue of whether the additional flights would be operated by Gulf Air or its subsidiary, Gulf Traveller, the official merely said "if extra capacity is required on the West Asia-India route, it will be served by the aircraft available, either from the mainline or subsidiary".

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