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Worried at airlines from the Gulf taking away their traffic, Indian and international carriers, particularly from Europe, are keen to further strengthen cooperation among themselves.
Sources told Business Line that the airlines will look at a variety of options, including enhancing code-share cooperation and entering into alliances with each other.
Such a move will allow airlines to share passengers among themselves.
The basic worry has to do with the manner in which some airlines, particularly those from the Gulf, are taking away sixth freedom traffic from India and Europe.
In technical parlance, the sixth freedom right allows an airline to fly between two foreign countries while stopping in its own country.
This sixth freedom right has gained considerable importance in the recent past and hence the last few days have seen a flurry of activity among European airlines and Indian officials.
The owner of a major private sector airline and officials of a major European carrier have met with senior Government officials to seek the official view for further enhancing cooperation between European and Indian carriers.
On its part, the Union Government is looking to pitch in to bolster the efforts of these airlines by soon announcing a new hub policy for Indian airports.
The policy will look at making airports at Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai as hubs for airlines similar to the manner in which some countries in the Middle and Far East have made their airports hubs, a move which has paid rich dividends for their airlines.
The Government's hub policy is to be announced in the next few days.
Earlier this year, the Comptroller and Auditor General, in its report for 2011-12 on Performance Audit of Civil Aviation in India, gave examples of how the sixth freedom rights are being exploited.
For example, the report says that Emirates airline flies passengers from India through Dubai (its home state) to UK/ USA. “Many international airlines especially those operating from city states/small states (e.g. Emirates/ Dubai; Qatar Airways/ Qatar; Cathay Pacific/ Hong Kong; Singapore Airlines/Singapore) derive a large portion of their passenger traffic revenues from sixth freedom traffic,” the report added.
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