Aviation ministry to meet foreign delegates, stress on auction for additional seats

• Posted in Aviation
• on August 19, 2016
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In a bid to curb any increase in bilateral airline seat entitlements and push for auction process to allocate additional seats, the ministry of civil aviation will meet official delegates from West Asian and European countries later this month.
This comes in the wake of the underutilisation of seats by Indian carriers. Indian airlines use less than 40% of their entitlements, while foreign carriers operating here manage to utilise over 80% of their entitled number of seats. This has helped foreign carriers to corner the international traveller segment.
While Indian carriers offered 242,000 seats in June this year, foreign carriers offered 432,000 seats, according to data provided by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation. Also, Indian carriers fly to only 66 of the 108 countries with which India has bilateral air agreements.
A senior aviation ministry official, requesting anonymity, said the meetings with delegates will start later this month and exact dates will be finalised soon.
InfraCircle on August 12 reported about the government’s plans to discuss the auction concept with different carriers and implement it before the revised summer schedule comes into effect by March end next year. Pavel Datsyuk Womens Jersey

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