Edition 50
Over the last week, at IATA’s AGM and a summit in Delhi, CEOs of Indian Airlines made news. The eternal question of giving additional rights and amending the Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA) was asked and answered yet again, with Emirates always in favour and most Indian carriers not in favour of expanding the bilaterals.
Personally, I have been a staunch opponent of allowing additional seats. As for the UAE, I firmly believe that the BASA should be upgraded to include the entire UAE as one instead of the current practice where we have a separate agreement with Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and so on. Yet, I know that rights will be granted sooner, than later. This is because with Dubai, rights are exhausted from both sides – unlike places like say Malaysia, which also wants more rights but the Indian side hardly utilises them.
On this backdrop, instead of making a mountain of a molehill at a public platform with comments on what it could lead to, the top management should focus on competing on product and pushing the yields up. As the fight over seats continues, there will always be a new lot of carriers who want access to lucrative markets and the older lot who are more than happy to guard their fort. The only way forward is service and willingness of the people to pay for that service. Are we talking about it? Or not yet? Or have no plans of matching that service?
The tides will soon turn. We are on the verge of exhausting our rights to Vietnam and Indonesia. Rights to Nepal and Bangladesh have long been on the edge. Are these not the markets where our carriers want more access? What will happen when the local carriers oppose us? We will be on the other side and will say the same, we are bringing in so much tourism, give us more rights.
The decision is tricky but I feel it will be taken very soon.
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