India turns down China's request to double flight frequency

Putting the interests of Indian carriers’ over that of their foreign counterparts, India has turned down China’s request to more than double the weekly frequencies of commercial flights between the two countries. China currently has 42 weekly frequencies to India and wanted this number to be raised to 98.

The dragon had also requested India to have an open sky policy (meaning have no restriction on weekly flights) with two of its provinces — Kunming and Hainan — and this too was declined, say sources.

China is not alone in having had its request for more access to India turned down. Others like Dubai were also given a similar reply after the Indian carriers told the government that they find it difficult to get good slots at airports in these places.


“The aviation ministry recently met brass of Indian airlines who spoke of not getting good slots at airports in places like China, Dubai and Singapore. They asked the government to see that enhancement of bilaterals with foreign countries should not be limited to just number of seats or frequencies of flights in a week. They should cover enabling environment for Indian airlines, which means they should get good slots for India to open its market further to other airlines of countries,” said a senior ministry official.

When some countries like China reportedly said their airlines also do not get slots in choked Indian airports like those at Delhi and Mumbai, India told them that slot allocation at these places is controlled by the airport operator. “This cannot be compared to state-owned airports in China where the state controls everything, including slots. Once Chinese airports give our airlines good slots, enhancing bilaterals will be considered,” said the official.

Countries like UAE, especially its emirate Dubai, Singapore and China have been asking for more access to Indian airports for their airlines in terms of weekly number of seats, flight frequencies and places where they fly to in India. However, the Narendra Modi government has been very careful in ensuring that Indian market should not be further opened to foreign airlines at the cost of its own airlines.