Must restrict flying rights of foreign airlines to aid Indian players: Wilson

There is a need to contain foreign airlines from expanding into India by restricting any increase in flying rights, so that Indian airlines can grow, Air India chief executive officer and managing director Campbell Wilson has said.

- Neha LM Tripathi

"I think the strategy is to contain traffic rights expansion, so that local airlines have the opportunity to spin up and attain scale and become competitive... and then actual liberalisation will happen. It's very difficult for us to fill an aircraft to North America, if there's a surplus of capacity that allows people to travel out by someone (airline) else, and so too much just leaks out. India will not get the nonstop capacity from an Indian operator to these markets," Wilson said in an interview with HT.

"So it's a balance that has to be struck, allowing the market to grow. But also incubate your local market, because that's fundamentally the most beneficial thing that you can do for the economy," he said while replying to a question on India restricting an increase in bilateral arrangements with several countries.

"The idea is to support Indian aviation. I think it's the right thing to do for the development of Indian aviation, and also Indian business and international connectivity," Wilson added.

The Indian government has received several requests seeking more bilateral air service agreements or foreign flying rights from major countries such as the UAE, Qatar, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Turkey, though none have been entertained so far.