- Moneycontrol
Foreign airlines have dominated Indian skies, time now for Indian carriers
Most countries and entities dealing with the Indian government since 2014 have realised by now that it is difficult to extract a favourable decision unless it is beneficial from India’s perspective. This is true even for bilateral seat entitlements for foreign airlines operating services to and from India. The policy pursued by the Narendra Modi government since 2014 has reflected a total change from the one followed by the UPA dispensation in the preceding decade.
Foreign airlines, through their respective governments, then managed to not only extract disproportionate additional seat entitlements but also access to more and more Indian cities. This helped them funnel traffic from Indian cities to their respective hubs for onward transportation of passengers to various destinations in Europe and the US. Most carriers in the Gulf and South-East Asia can attribute a major part of the growth achieved by them to the strength of the Indian market. So much so that with the market share that Emirates commanded a few years ago, it came to be dubbed as India’s national carrier.