India open to raising flight quota with Singapore

India considering liberalized air service agreement with Singapore, potentially allowing more flights and airport access.

India is now open to reviewing Singapore’s request for a liberalised air service agreement, potentially allowing more flights and expanded access to Indian airports - a shift from its stance in recent years.

“The government is open to considering demands for a revision in bilateral agreements for Singapore but Indian airlines have to first utilise the seat capacity allocated under these agreements,” a senior official of the Ministry of Civil Aviation told The Hindu on the condition of anonymity.

A bilateral air service agreement (ASA) is a treaty between two countries that allows airlines of the two sides to provide air connectivity. These specify the number of flights or seats allocated to the two countries, apart from the airports that can be served.

Following a surge in travel demand post Covid-19 there have been demands from the UAE, Qatar, Singapore and several other countries such as Turkey for enhanced seat allocation, but the government was reluctant to accede to these demands fearing loss of passengers for Indian airlines with Qatar and Emirates redirecting passengers bound for the US and Europe through their hubs in Doha and Dubai, particularly when post-privatisation Air India placed large aircraft orders and has been expanding direct flights to far-flung international destinations.

But there is no policy change for Gulf countries yet, according to the above quoted official.

Singapore Airlines and its low-cost subsidiary, Scoot, have fully exhausted the number of seats they are allowed to deploy on Indian routes, while Indian carriers are “almost at seat cap”, according to industry and diplomatic sources. Last year, Brian Torrey, General Manager for India and West Asia at Scoot, told journalists that along with more seats there was a need for bilateral agreements to provide permission to fly to more Indian airports.

The two sides last revised a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on air services in April 2013. The agreement provides 28,700 seats each to the two sides to and from seven airports in the country including Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Coimbatore. This is in addition to unlimited seating capacity to 18 points in India which is available for all the ASEAN countries, including Singapore.