NEW DELHI: Government has granted traffic rights to Indian airlines on 17 new international routes since last May, including Kolkata-Guangzhou and Delhi-Tehran sectors.
Expressing hope that these rights would give a major boost to Indian carriers, Minister of State for Civil Aviation G M Siddeshwara said in Lok Sabha that these rights were granted to private Indian airlines after considering the operational requirements of national carrier Air India.
The other sectors for which traffic rights have been granted since May 2013 are Chandigarh-Dubai, Madurai-Dubai, Madurai-Kuala Lumpur, Bagdogra-Kathmandu, Hyderabad-Riyadh, Bangalore-Abu Dhabi, Hyderabad-Abu Dhabi, Ahmedabad-Abu Dhabi, Goa-Abu Dhabi, Lucknow-Abu Dhabi, Pune-Abu Dhabi, Bangalore- Tehran, Chennai-Doha, Hyderabad-Doha and Lucknow-Doha.
The guidelines for allocation of these rights on global sectors are done to provide a level-playing field to all eligible private airlines while retaining the primacy of the national carrier, as also the availability of traffic rights under respective bilateral air services agreements with the respective countries, Siddeshwara said.
To a question on Bangalore airport, he said the Bangalore International Airport Limited has a plan to construct a second runway and a new terminal in line with the traffic projections.
The expenditure and timeline of the project would depend on various factors like appointment of technical consultants, preparation of Detailed Project Report, stakeholders consultations and approval of various authorities, he added.
Government was also considering proposals to declare Bhopal, Indore and Raipur airports as international airports, he said in reply to another question.
Regarding flight operations in the Northeast, he said none of the airports in the region have closed operations in the past three years and the government remained committed to strengthen flight operations there. -PTI
