India has a population equal in size to China. However it isn’t nearly as significant economically or geopolitically. It hasn’t experienced China’s growth. India’s economy is about one fifth the size. And even on a purchasing power parity basis the average Indian is about 60% poorer than the average resident of China.
They don’t think they need foreign flights to improve commerce and bring down costs. They’d rather protect their homegrown oligarchs.
In the early 1990s, facing a debt crisis and stagnant economy, India partially liberalized, doing away with many business licensing and protectionist regimes. They nearly doubled economic growth, from a low base, and averted national bankruptcy.
However the lesson of the early 90s seems to have been forgotten under Prime Minister Modi, as exemplified by India’s decision not to allow foreign airlines to add more flights.
India dampened foreign airline hopes for more access to its airports on Tuesday, with its aviation minister urging domestic carriers to fly long-haul and help establish new hubs as it seeks to recapture control of Indian travel from foreign rivals.
…India was not looking at increasing air traffic quotas with Gulf states and instead wanted Indian carriers to offer non-stop long haul flights on larger planes. He said Air India’s widebody plane order and IndiGo’s twin-aisles to some destinations were signs that “transition” had begun.
Perhaps Ironically Named Gateway Of India, Mumbai
According to India’s Minister of Civil Aviation, he has determined that the country must have “a hub within India” and not just on its Eastern and Western borders, and goes so far as to describe airline operations as “my” hubs rather than those of the airlines, suggesting the role the Indian state expects to play in aviation despite having privatized Air India. It also seems like an odd take considering Delhi isn’t on one of the country’s borders.
Air India has placed one of the largest aircraft orders in history buying planes over several years that represent several points of India’s GDP in a single year. And they aim to protect India’s largest conglomerate, Tata Group.
- More flights, especially from Emirates and also other Gulf carriers, would bring more choices to Indian consumers, increase competition, and lower fares.
- More seats in the market would mean more travel in and out of India, which is good for commerce and tourism. It would also support more cargo (trade).
- It would make it easier for Indian citizens, who are poor, to travel. It would make it easier to obtain foreign employment and send remittances home.
Along every conceivable dimension, more flights from more airlines benefits the Indian economy and its people generally. The owners of domestic Indian airlines do not benefit, and politicians who depend on them for support and favors do not.
(HT: @istrakhov)
From what I have read of India’s carriers, I would not fly on one of them. Most flying between countries is set by reciprocal agreements. That may limit where Indian flight can land if they don’t want reciprocal agreements.
Kingfisher and Jet Airways provided me better service in economy class on domestic flights than American, Delta and United have ever provided me in economy class on domestic flights.
Modi is buddy buddies with the Saudis and Emiratis (and Russians), and so I doubt that his (or, for that matter, any other) Indian government is going to give the boot to all the GCC airlines that are a rival to India’s de facto national carrier.
Maybe Modi & Co will try to give the boot to Turkish, but Modi and his apparatchiks are walking hand in hand with the Saudis and Emiratis on many things (including against the Turks) and will — proverbially-speaking — the RSS/BJP “leaders” will continue to bend the knee and kiss the ring when it comes to those Gulf royals because they need to feed themselves and feet fed by the Indian oligarchs in bed with the Saudis and Emiratis for energy supplies and other reasons.
So when India does it its bad?
Air Canada has been subsidized this year for years. The govt limits the access of the ME3.
That let’s AC charge high prices for a product that is actually far worse than any Indian carrier!
If you transit India on a foreign airline they put you in a holding area and do not allow you to go to lounges, get food or water and have limited access to bathrooms. Avoid traveling via India at all costs. I did not pay for business class to be treated like an exile or criminal.
Having lived both in India and in the US for more that 2 decades each, I have to say this article is a prime example of bias. No foreign airline comes to you altruistically. In the past, India had to beg, now they hold the cards. They have developed a spine and holding their position much to the annoyance of the “entitled” west. Kudos to their confidence. Just travelled to India and the local airports are super busy. Nice to see them growing deliberately, rather be taken in by the other airlines.
@Bob – I have criticized Air Canada’s protectionism as well. However the harms are greater in India.
All the rubbish talk. India didn’t say no to foreign carriers. Currently they have a bilateral agreement with UAE which allow Emirates and Etihad fly 50K seats per week, which is fully utilized by UAE and but not on indian side. Indian carriers have long complained Gulf gives them unviable landing slots (odd hours) in dubai/Abu Dhabi. With increasing demand Emirates/Etihad wants more share of India-US & India-Europe Traffic. Indian govt wants indian carriers fly direct to US/Europe and viceversa US/Europe carriers to India. Allowing more will kill already very low point to point connections by indian airlines & foreign airlines between India/US & India/Europe.
@FlyOften “So Delta whining about ME3 ok but this not ok? Your hypocrisy is showing.”
I was probably the leading critic of Delta’s position.
This is a perfect example of American ‘knows it all geniasses’ eyeing the rest of the world through their myopic, hypocritical lenses. If they would get their heads out of you know where, they would start to see that they’re no better than what they accuse India of. And to ask the brainiacs talking about how they would never board an Indian operated airline, at least the Indian skies don’t have a constant stream nowadays of near misses and technical issues with their a/c like in the good old US of A. I feel safer on Indian A/C than UNITED or AMERICAN. Get OTTA HERE !!! You don’t know if you’re coming or going! All you have is your ridiculous rhetoric. You are in the wrong side of history and you’re just butthurt that’s all.
This is false information with misleading title covering up facts. Author has shown his vested interests and bias in this article. Perfect example of bad journalism or paid by foreign/gulf airline groups.
Author has proved his shallow knowledge in the airline industry.
Working at US DOT and FAA in the United States and worked in inter-nation agreements including OpenSkies policies between govt, i can tell you that middle east airlines especially Emirates and Qatar airways resort to exploiting and abusing the laws and rules in capturing the inbound and outbound travel market with its low prices, due to the reason they pay low for fuel as they own the crude oil market and pricing. They also lack human & labor rights and pay less than the minimum wage prevalent in US and European markets. Lufthansa, United and other airlines have complaining about these gulf airlines of their corrupt practices. Emirates, Etihad and Qatarairways tried to deploy the same abusive tactics on India which Indian govt realized it very well. Indian govt is trying to make it a level playing field in its nation’s interests for the home grown airline industry.
This Author want to grab attention of audience with its catchy, cheap misleading title, clear example of bad journalism.
Who cares about facts when you can peddle a biases and hit jobs. Seems every day some foreigner try to tell indians how to run airlines, economy, foreign policy, etc. Please care about your own countries since it is needed due to bank collapses, economic recessions. India is just doing fine by itself.
It is strange a frequent traveller citing GDP and other economic parameters of two major economies as if he is an authority. The opening paragraph of the article is clear indicator of the bias and hatred for the reasons best known to him. Commenting on the prime minister and political parties is uncalled for. It shows the agony of the author. Probably loosing of business is worrying him.
It is nothing but propaganda and west is worried that they no longer can loot the world like before. India had dealt with economic problems 30years ago and knows how to deal with it. Mind you, Now bankruptucy is at the door for US and Europe.
Why the hate for India? Not geo politically important! Right when everyone is kissing up to Modi! Thanks for your anti India bias but this is not the 80s!
I am an Indian and I agree. We should have same rules for both foreign and Domestic airlines. Imagine a situa where foreign governments refuse to give visas to Indians. We will be in a really poor position to bargain with them.
The “hate for India” comes from commenters who want the government to redistribute money from Indian citizens to Tata Group while hampering the Indian economy – a concerted effort to gaslight in the comments here notwithstanding.
India is currently refusing to raise the seat capacity for Emirati carriers serving India.
That recalcitrant approach doesn’t do Indian passengers any good, but never underestimate the ability of pseudo-nationalists undermining the interests of the common person in the pursuit of some supposedly noble goal.
That other countries play the “protectionist” game doesn’t make it any better to copy the “beggar thy neighbor” type approach.
You are comparing India which worlds most vibrant, open, free, and the largest democracy where every small decision is debated with the most autocratic country China. There is no comparison at all.
For example – to build a new highway, govt has to listen to many people with diverse opinions, env organizations, ngos, other clearances, legal suits, protests, and then compensate people for diff things and then build a highway and anybody can.protest can say anything n.press can write anything while I China, if autocratic govr thinks of highway, they just clear up villages and built it as nobody has freedom.to speak up and nothing to debate.
I have seen for years after telling the world that no other country is as kind and generous as india on this planet. I can give 1.million examples of it. Coming back.to topic.
Señor Leff,
Familiar with the Fifty Cent Party/Army? Well, there is the cheaper, Indian quasi-equivalent with the army of shallow nationalists who think Modi (and the RSS/BJP) and/or India can do nothing (or little) wrong and are eager to rewrite history to try to bury facts that get in the way of their wishful thinking.
Indian aviation had gone into the pits and remained stuck there until India stepped back a little from its stance of pro-protectionism and pro-nationalization of the aviation sector.
This aviation minister Scindia has a habit of speaking in the royal “we” sense when it comes to a lot of things. It’s not so much his trickle-down Maharaja inheritance on full display. It was not just his father (who was a Congress Party Union minister for Civil Aviation) and his grandfather (the last Maharaja of Gwalior) who speak this way with making local/national assets into “our” assets, a lot of people speak this way when playing the nationalist card.
This article is bordering on naivety. International landing spots are reciprocal in nature. If Canada, US and Middle East countries won’t provide landing spots to Indian airlines, there is no reason for India to do the same. Not so surprisingly, Air india has thr most spots because of legacy arrangements. They are bound to corner their market percentage back. Yet another reason why new entrants like Indigo are not been allowed international Landing spots. To expect india to roll over would be stupid.
lol I see the nationalist Modi trolls are out in force. To borrow a line from Modi’s buddy, he’s not sending his best…
What a load of crap and faff in this ridiculously biased arricle. As always Americans cannot mind their own business and want to butt into everything as if they own the world. Every sovereign nation has the right to do what is best for it’s people. End of!!
Some westerners will always complain that some countries should open their skies to foreign airlines. The argument that thus will causr fare priced to drop seems a good one. But some countries have been more over protective about their skies. Canada has air fare prices higher between cities that are closer.to each other compared to longer flights for greater distances, like travelling to Europe, for example.. why would some rich countries exert monopoly over their territory and not developing countries ?
Again, India is not closing its doors to foreign airlines. They are simply doing what other countries have done repeatedly.
Who paid you to write this stupid article
So who pays Gary Leff for writing this article? China, Qatar or other Gulf countries? Looks like he has been paid to put India down by comparing it with China.
How about comparing with China the developed West and pointing out how badly they are doing in every sector.
And after making the non relevant comparison there is no reference to China. How very weird. India has never claimed that it is the top economy.
And Gary is protecting the Gulf countries because their petro revenue is going to dry out within a few years.
This is a totally biased article. Why doesn’t Gary talk about how the West protects its air routes and limits other countries entering certain routes. The travellers have very limited choice. Did Gary think of lecturing the West to open up their routes to other airlines to make them more competitive so the poor people of the West can travel by air. There are a lot of very poor people in the West who are going to free food banks for their food and sleeping out on the streets!
Gary calls himself an expert! An expert on what? Is he an expert on economics? If not he should refrain from making non relevant comments.
Gary, save what’s left of your dignity and stop writing garbage like this. For someone who has never set foot in India (don’t lie that you have!) you certainly think you know the country better than the Indians themselves do. Your article smacks of the ignorant hubris and unexamined white male privilege of the colonizer. Before you start labeling other countries and peoples of color as poor, stupid, and whatever, check your privilege and look up “humility” in the dictionary. Your arrogance makes your readers gag.
@Gerind – The limits are actually 65200 seats per week for Dubai and 49970 seats per week for Abu Dhabi (plus separate quotas for Sharjah and Ras Al Khaimah). The Dubai quota is fully allocated on both sides, but the others still have availability.
Overall, the bilaterally agreed quotas are approx. 27.3 million seats per year across all airlines and all airports. Given the entire population of the UAE is 9 million, this is viewed by MoCA as more than adequate to meet the needs of traffic between the countries.
The author is so clearly biased and working for some other airline; it is clearly evident in the word he used.
Indians living in other countries spend a lot of money on middle-east airlines as they do not have many other options. These airlines killed European airline routes to India by offering ridiculously low, loss-making rates to kill competition. Indians, being cheap, flocked and spent their money with the ME airlines. After the europeans reduced/eliminated flights due to low load, ME airlines, having killed the competition, raised the ticket prices. Is this fair to other airlines and to the passengers?
India, being the largest country, can choose to provide options for its citizens to spend their money on airlines that pays taxes to India. What is wrong with that? Most Indians who are traveling to India would gladly spend their money with airlines that benefits its citizens and uplift its poor.
It is a shame that the author repeatedly says that Indians are poor.
@William Mapouka – “efore you start labeling other countries and peoples of color as poor, stupid, and whatever, check your privilege ”
I never labeled the people of India as stupid or “whatever” but the per capital GDP is ~ $2500, you seem to be effectively the colonizer who wants to keep them poor.
Yes the author of this article is very biased against India. India has the best airlines in the world. the author should stop the hate on India and India airlines. Mr author does not know about India india airlines or india economy. India is best world country
This is a crap article influenced by Western media to shwo India in bad light. See how the westen countries are running for India support for stopping Ukrainian war. The same thing they tried again china as well.
The author gave example of China and forgot that China has ever more tough restrictions when it comes to foreign companies. Chinese airlines are dominated by Chinese domestic companies. Moreover China has strictest censorship in just about everything. When talking about The richness of Chinese people don’t forget to mention happiness index and how people are treated like cattle there when it comes to manufacturing. China didn’t get all of these without compromising humanitarian grounds.
And please get over Modi hatred. It’ll be easy to digest once you accept people like him and want him and he’s a nationalist above all
Not forgot! The wealthier the country the more stupid policies they can afford!
Oh my god… who are these rats going on about how terrible India is and their airlines are crap???? GOOD !!! Stay away!!! More for us!! We don’t and never needed you in the first place. We were feeding you idiots during the ‘ stagnant economy’ days of the nineties and like the ingrates you are youre quick to forget that even two years ago when we were sending out vaccines to your countries to save your sorry assets.
Don’t forget to write us when your economies continue to tank because all you are is hot air. Production wise You’re zilch And will never be more than parasites. You operate on debt and that’s so you will be.
What the heck is this article?
EVERY SINGLE major airline flies to India. Everyone. To multiple destinations. Singapore, Qatar, BA, Lufthansa whoever you want to name. Currently these carriers take more than 75% of international travel out of India. Meanwhile, the two biggest airline/airline groups are launching more international flights this year than in many years gone by. Should the govt just encourage oversupply? Does this situation suggest that India “does not want your international flights”? We already have them. There is 0 correlation to the 1990s when India had a closed economy.
The only reason the gulf carriers have asked for more flights is that they’re afraid of the incoming competition. After KF & Jet died, India basically had no competitor to any airline. Now there’s IndiGo and Air India (adding 11 long haul planes this yr).
What a joke of an article & an insult to this publication.
The author of this article may have a point but he is no expert in Indian aviation history and market, as well as its policies or where it wants to be after all these years of being told by the great thought leaders/politicians/lawmakers/entitled genius’s of certain countries(don’t have to mention ofcourse) on what to do with Indian market without knowing the country well. Tell me if what India is doing right now is wrong! Then what united/AA/delta did by partnering with other European airlines to certain routes of their choice, essentially kicking out the competition out is right!? Tell me if middle eastern airlines did not particularly exploit the fares… Can you tell me if any country neglects its interests for the benefit of others! This article is one side of a coin! Oh hey! Who cares right! Indian aviation market is ready to be exploited by (….) and Indian govt won’t allow that to happen, at least for now. I’m pretty sure that quotas to other countries will be increased based on need in the future. Their market has a potential unlike any other in the current times. So hold your horses and watch. And finally, please don’t cheat yourself thinking what worked in your case/country would always work for other countries who don’t share a thing in culture/identity/overall functioning of it’s institutions. Poor comparison and Biased article to say the least. ✌️ out
My wife is Punjabi.
I have been to India several times.
Unless one is uber-wealthy, India is a corrupt shithole.
That is a fact. Deal with it.
The comments to this article are indeed interesting and Gary’s comments in the article started a clear questioning of his bias, starting w/ the notion that India is a poor country.
First, Gary, when were you last in India? How many times have you been in the last 5 years? Have you ever been in India? The same question is true for every other person that wants to comment about India.
Second, it is clear from even the excerpts that India is not going to give Emirates a carte blanche check for expansion. The entire world has realized that covid has been an opportunity to reassess the role of the Middle East airlines and the realization that the ME3 are not as interested in developing the economies of the countries they serve as dominating their markets. It is not exactly like we expect British Airways, Delta or Qantas to do anything that isn’t in their best interest but they at least have a strong home country on one end of the routes they serve. The ME3 want to siphon off of both ends of their network with no benefit to either.
Third, India, just like every country is right to try to develop its own economy and companies and take the same steps to ensure its own companies success as every western company has done.
Fourth, Delta’s objection to Boeing’s support of allowing non-US and non-European carriers to be financially assisted by the US Export Import Bank was precisely the primary reason Delta targeted the ME3. I doubt if Boeing is as convinced their move was that smart after Delta has taken delivery of and still has on order over $40 billion worth of Airbus aircraft.
Fifth, let’s not forget that China unilaterally decided to cut the amount of foreign carrier access and has not reinstated it even though they lifted all domestic covid restrictions – a move that is nothing more than government protectionism of its airline industry which was heavily subsidized by the Chinese government pre-covid, something they don’t want to do again.
Let’s call a spade what it is but not confuse India’s legitimate right to provide access to its own markets based on how and its home countries.
Just don’t expect Gary to provide the balanced perspective that is needed on this issue because all Gary is concerned about is page clicks – and he go them on this article.
@Tim Dunn – I’ve been to India more than half a dozen times, all of my visits were pre-pandemic, are you seriously suggesting that most people in a country with $2500 GDP per capita are not poor? (And I cited PPP here in the post as well.)
“India, just like every country is right to try to develop its own economy” but here it is doing the opposite. Air travel builds an economy. Taxing poorer people in your country to protect the margins of your wealthiest citizens does not.
Your claim that “Delta’s objection to Boeing’s support of allowing non-US and non-European carriers to be financially assisted by the US Export Import Bank was precisely the primary reason Delta targeted the ME3” is absolutely false. The former was a domestic political issue (they didn’t want the US government subsidizing their rivals), the latter didn’t even focus on the largest subsidies they claimed the Gulf carriers received.
China is absolutely protectionist along many dimensions, much of what the Chinese Communist Party does is counterproductive for their economy, sometimes intentionally (like cracking down on their domestic tech industry) but they’ve moved enough towards markets that they’ve experienced enough growth they’re better able to afford this than India is. Whether they can afford slower growth while maintaining political stability is an open question! Whether they’re able to retain tight control over their civil society in an age of AI and LLMs remains to be seen! They already acknowledge there are going to be problems with the Great Firewall in the face of homegrown versions of Chat GPT.
Meanwhile quit denigrating my motives (“all Gary is concerned about is page clicks – and he go them on this article”) when you lack the better of an argument. Your working theory is wrong here in any case, this piece represents my view. I write what I think, I don’t write for clicks. I just don’t shy away from controversy because that’s who I am. If I were trying to maximize revenue from this site I would be far less controversial! Look at other large sites with direct relationships with credit card issuers. Do you find The Points Guy taking frequent stands like I do? Those turn off people who might apply for a credit card. I do it anyway, not because it makes money but even though it loses money.
As a travel agent I have traveled in most of the world airlines. With the advent of the Arabian Airlines like Emirates and Etihad, the European airlines had to take a back seat because they redefined luxury. While the Western airlines were on cost cutting, Emirates was providing multilingual and multicultural absolutely global experience. Gone were the days when airports like Frankfurt and Charles de Gaul looked like a marvel. Both in vassels quality and service the airliesnes of UAE were far superior. India’s own Jet Airway and Kingfisher were world class with very high service standards. Some of my worst travel experience has been on American Airlines which looks like a interstate bus in Europe, their inflight service standards were the worst. Air India had very good standards but was owned by Government of India. With it’s privatization and after it goes back to it’s original owners the Tatas, Air India is bound to become the topmost airlines in the world. Anyone who has seen the Tata standards of hospitality in their hotel chain can be sure of this.
This article is written out of frustration as this would mean that the huge and profitable Indian market, is bound to shift east. If the author feels that Indian’s are poor he can still push low cost airlines to India liye Rayan Air butnai think IndiGo would batter it to dustnin both cost and service efficiency. Europeans and western airlines are doomed to loose and it’s their interest that the author is trying hard to protect. For me the best flight, timing wise, from Europe is Air France but it works out very expensive and the lost baggage in transit has increased. Given the choice I would love to fly on Air India manager by Tata or Emirates anyday if they can offer the same fare as the quality of food onboard and service would be too notch.
Hi Gary,
Do any of the illustrious research and fellow scholars at the Mercatus Center know of their center’s Chief Financial Officer’s biased and half-informed views about countries, citizens, wealth and aviation policies?
My advice: Stick to being a CFO and leave the publication of econo-geo-socio-polical views to the scholars who can.
Gary,
someone ahead of me in the comments suggested you had never been to India. I asked the question and accept your response.
You are manipulating history if you believe that Delta wasn’t directly arguing against the ME3’s receiving of Import Export Bank subsidies because they were and continue to be the largest purchasers of aircraft from either Airbus and Boeing that do not qualify for subsidies. (neither US or European airlines are eligible)
Nowhere do any of the facts of the real case – not what you put in this article – show that India is limiting any country’s access EXCEPT the UAE. Tell us precisely, Gary, what other countries that India is targeting? Not with opinion but facts from real documents.
India is a country of over 1 billion people. Of course there are many, many poor people and averages are low because of the huge number of poor people – but the middle class that travels internationally or is capable of doing so is still in the hundreds of millions of people
When you make patently factually incorrect statements or exclude key facts to push an agenda which is not in line w/ what other sources report, people have to ask why. You can tell us why from the start of the article or you can simply deal w/ the factually incorrect statements or include all facts before you make stupid comments such as the poverty of travelers.
@Tim Dunn “You are manipulating history if you believe that Delta wasn’t directly arguing against the ME3’s receiving of Import Export Bank subsidies”
That’s not what I said, and that’s not what you said. Delta was absolutely opposed to re-authorizing the Export-Import bank. They happened to be right on the merits, in addition to the self-serving reasons they took the position. But that wasn’t the primary reason they wanted the Gulf carriers kicked out of the country, and Export-Import bank subsidies certainly are not and were not their claimed biggest subsidies.
I also never talked about “the poverty of travelers”
(1) they keep poorer people who don’t travel by air from doing so
(2) this is not just about travelers! air travel brings economic development. refer to the original piece. It’s cargo. It’s commerce. It’s the things that make people in a country less poor!
Talking about all of the people who can afford to travel completely misses the point.
Most of the commenters in this thread, of course, are disinformation trolls acting on behalf of the Indian government – they are not organic readers of this site. It’s been receiving a shocking amount of traffic *from India* which is…. unusual for this site.
Gary,
where and when did Delta ever want to kick the ME3 out of the country (presumably the US?) Facts and citations, please.
Delta most certainly did object to the subsidies from ExIm that the ME3 could receive but US and European carriers could not. If you don’t think that is correct, then provide proof from their complaints which were filed with the government so they are of public record.
again, facts and documentation, not opinions matter.
If you aren’t capable of recognizing that averages in the largest and growing country in the world don’t translate into international travel or don’t bother to include that perspective, then you deserve to be criticized not just from India but from the US.
And tell us that there weren’t huge volumes of internet traffic to this site when you ran endless articles about China.
it is called the worldwide web for a reason.
it doesn’t mean you have a fanbase there.
and it doesn’t mean you can publish whatever you want without facing repercussions in your own country
Gary, you seemed to have hit a nerve. This is my opinion.
@Tim Dunn: Yes, facts matter. Where are yours?
You throw out nonsense regularly and then try to call out others.
Take a look at https://www.businessinsider.com/deltas-rivals-strike-back-after-video-attacking-middle-eastern-airlines-2017-7
“As a result, they also say the ME3 are in violation of the Open Skies agreements that govern air travel between the US and 120 nations including the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. The US3 has asked the Trump Administration to re-examine the Open Skies agreements with the UAE and Qatar while prohibiting any further expansion into the US by the ME3.”
Facts matter.
I fly from BLR to SFO often via DXB and if Air India put new plane on this route or if United starts direct flight to BLR, I would never fly any other route again and as a passenger that’s what I want. Not waste time in middle east or Europe. Also, this author is clearly biased and stuck in 80’s.. Significant percentage of India is middle class and has capacity to fly international route. Vast majority of Americans are burdened with debt than average Indians. Does that make them rich?