Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said Thursday that the time has come to send a loud and clear message that foreign airline flights will not be allowed at the expense of Indian airlines. On September 28, Lufthansa had to cancel their flights between India and Germany from September 30 to October 20, as the DGCA withdrew their permission saying that there are restrictions for Indians who want to travel to Germany and this puts ” Indian carriers at a significant disadvantage as a result of the uneven distribution of traffic in favor of Lufthansa. ”During a press conference, Puri said:“ The issue is not allowing foreign carriers to enter or not. We are all in favor of carriers. foreigners operating here. Make no mistakes. But I think the time has come for the message to get out loud and clear that it will not be done at the expense of Indian carriers. “” Under regulated agreements (air bubbles), we do not insist in full parity. Even close parity will do, “added the minister.
Following the aforementioned General Directorate of Civil Aviation (DGCA) decision that led to the cancellation of Lufthansa flights, Air India was forced to cancel all flights from Frankfurt until October 14, as Germany withdrew the permission for them.
Scheduled international passenger flights have been suspended in India since March 23 due to the coronavirus pandemic. However, special international flights have been allowed since July under bilateral air bubble pacts formed by India with around 16 countries, including Germany.
Puri said: “There is an opportunity in India for all foreign economic entities. But equally, when it comes to business advantage, we also hope that our carriers, when they go there (to those countries), will also get those facilities. “In September, Lufthansa operated around 20 flights per week to India, while Air India operated about three flights a week to Germany.
“If the fix (of the air bubble) is carried out only for the right of sixth freedom, then obviously we would want parity because we have direct flights between us and the US and between us and Canada. And we would like the American and Canadian airline (to operate). So, there is no difficulty in the negotiation either, ”said Puri.
The sixth right of freedom allows an airline to take passengers from one country to the central airport in their home country and then place those passengers on a connecting flight to a third country.
A significant number of Indians use European airlines like Lufthansa or Gulf airlines like Emirates to travel to the United States or Canada. The DGCA told Lufthansa a few weeks ago not to carry sixth freedom passengers on its India-Germany flights. An airline that operates flights under an air bubble pact cannot carry sixth freedom passengers from India, according to the DGCA.
Aviation Secretary Pradeep Singh Kharola told the press conference that India and Germany are in talks on how to reestablish the air bubble agreement between the two countries.
“We had the first round of talks with Germany on Tuesday. They were held in a friendly atmosphere and were very constructive talks. They expressed their point of view and we expressed our point of view. We will meet with them in a day or two once more and the air bubble fix will be finalized with Germany, ”said Kharola.
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