Abu Dhabi has sought to increase its airline capacity (called bilateral traffic rights) with India from 13,000 seats a week to 25,000 seats. Indian carriers want it to be raised to 55,000 seats; out of this, Naresh Goyal's Jet Airways alone has demanded 42,000 seats. If the civil aviation ministry agrees, several smaller Indian cities will get linked to Abu Dhabi. This will be bad news for the newly modernised airports in Delhi and Mumbai. People from other cities will have the option to fly to Abu Dhabi and thence to Europe, North America and Africa. Instead of Delhi or Mumbai becoming a hub for international air traffic, the business will go to West Asia, questioning the logic of making huge investments in the last few years in both the airports to augment capacity to meet the anticipated rise in traffic in the next decade or so. Delhi airport has serious ambitions to become a hub for the substantial traffic between Africa and China and also between the former Soviet Union countries and Southeast Asia. All its plans will come to nought if the civil aviation ministry increases the bilateral traffic rights. Naturally, the Delhi and Mumbai airports have opposed the move.
23/04/13 Business Standard
