The Hindu Business Line : Jet, Sahara global bid may cause flutter among foreign airlines

THEY may have just spread out their wings to the international skies but the two young domestic airlines - Jet Airways and Air Sahara - are already giving a run for their money to some of the more experienced and established international airlines which are keen to expand operations in and out of India.

If official sources are to be believed, in the past six months alone, bilateral air services talks between India and a major European country as also another North American nation have broken down on just one issue.

In particular, the two visiting delegations had sought assurances that the private sector domestic airlines would not be designated to fly to their airports.

Although the Union Government has not yet firmed up its proposal to allow private sector airlines to go truly global, the proposal is already causing jitters in some parts of the globe.

The designated airlines of both the countries with which bilateral air services talks were not successful already operate regular flights to India and were keen to increase connectivity to more cities in the country.

Both the designated airlines are members of different global aviation alliances and between them operate more than 2,500 daily flights to various parts of the world.

Incidentally, one of the international airlines which expressed concern at the Union Government's proposal to allow the private sector airlines into its airports took to the skies more than 60 years before Jet and Sahara were born in 1993.

Currently, Jet Airways and Air Sahara have been allowed to operate flights to the six countries of the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation, including Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh and the Maldives, among others.

However, the high-powered Naresh Chandra Committee, which is likely to form the basis of the civil aviation policy, has also given its nod to allow private airlines to fly globally.

"It is a matter of great pride for us as Indians. It is not a question of either Jet or Sahara but the fact that Indian dynamism, when given a chance, is second to none and can take on the best globally," official sources involved in both the bilateral air services talks told Business Line.

Whether the fledging domestic birds will be allowed to fly to more nations globally or the international airlines keen to protect their turf will call the shots, only time will tell.