US Carriers Head For Indian Skies At Last

ET&T Staff - Mumbai

Six months after the Open Skies Agreement between India and the US came into force, major American carriers are trying to grab a pie in the fast-growing Indian skyline. In the run-up to the peak traffic season, three major US airlines have announced their decisions to land in India. Two of them - American Airlines and Continental Airlines - would fly non-stop across Atlantic, Europe and Asia to reach New Delhi in Just 13 to 15 hours against the average 20 hour flight with one stop over.

Beginning 1 November, Continental Airlines will fly Newark to New Delhi daily, while American Airlines follows suit from Chicago starting November 15. Northwest Airlines will launch a Seattle-Amsterdam-Bangalore service on 30 October. It has also entered into an agreement with partner KLM for flying to Hyderabad, with Chennai too on its radar. Delta Airlines already runs a service to Chennai via Paris, the first US airline to do so after the Open Skies Agreement signing on April 14. Besides, some of these US carriers have joined hands with their Indian counterparts to provide connecting flights to passengers. American Airlines has entered into a code share agreement with Air Sahara while Northwest Airlines signed a co-operative marketing agreement with Jet Airways on October 9. So why this sudden interest for the Indian skyline? Senior US officials, aviation analysts and airlines officials attribute it to the Open Skies Agreement. It is a sign of India's recognition as a 'huge potential' aviation market, they say.

Referring to the developments in the past six months, Karan Bhatia, a senior US administration official, said, "This is a text book example of success of such agreements." As an assistant secretary of Transportation for Aviation and International Affairs in the US Department of Transportation, he was a key player in the historic Open Skies Agreement between the two countries.

Aviation analyst Ray Neidl said the developments only reflected the emergence of India as a strong business developing market like China. The 'look India' policy of US carriers, said Helane Becker, air transportation analyst from Benchmark Company, was because India is being viewed as a route of 'profit-making'. It is also because a large number of US industries, businesses and corporates are moving towards India, she said. Also, several US carriers are facing a tough ride in their own markets due to spiralling jet fuel prices. Both Northwest and Delta filed for bankruptcy recently.

"India is a new upcoming market," conceded Liu Laura, vice president (International marketing and sales) of Northwest Airlines. In the last one year, the trans-Atlantic growth has been to the tune of 25 per cent, she said. Not wanting to be left behind, Air-India too has started exploring the possibilities of both increasing the frequency and connecting new US cities with Indian ones. "We are definitely looking at expansion and are evaluating various routes and options. But it is too premature to say anything definite at this point," said P K Gupta of Air-India, New York.