Mumbai: The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) will seek an external
audit of bilateral seat entitlements after it found that some Indian
carriers were not fully utilising the seats allocated to them, as per an
ET report by Mihir Mishra. The audit will essentially look at the
actual utilisation of bilaterals by Indian carriers vis-a-vis their
international peers, a senior civil aviation ministry official said.
"The audit of these bilateral entitlements will be done in two phases, first will be done internally, when officials in the Ministry will compile data on bilateral allocation till today and their utilisation. In the second phase, we will hire experts from outside to audit the bilateral entitlements and will seek their suggestions and recommendations on the issue," the official said, requesting anonymity.
Currently, Indian carriers can retain seats for three years. They can also seek an extension from the Ministry over this period. Some experts said while the audit is likely to show unutilised seats in allocations made for flights to countries in West Asia and South East Asia, it will not show disparity in utilisation of allocations to the UK and the US, since India has signed open-sky treaties with these countries, which allow their carriers to operate unlimited number of flights to India and vice versa.
Read news in full08/09/14 TravelBizMonitor
"The audit of these bilateral entitlements will be done in two phases, first will be done internally, when officials in the Ministry will compile data on bilateral allocation till today and their utilisation. In the second phase, we will hire experts from outside to audit the bilateral entitlements and will seek their suggestions and recommendations on the issue," the official said, requesting anonymity.
Currently, Indian carriers can retain seats for three years. They can also seek an extension from the Ministry over this period. Some experts said while the audit is likely to show unutilised seats in allocations made for flights to countries in West Asia and South East Asia, it will not show disparity in utilisation of allocations to the UK and the US, since India has signed open-sky treaties with these countries, which allow their carriers to operate unlimited number of flights to India and vice versa.
Read news in full08/09/14 TravelBizMonitor
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