Bilateral rights row: Don't club us with GCC nations, says Jazeera Air CEO

Indian regulators should not club Kuwait with other Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) countries while deciding on awarding bilateral rights because it does not have a mega carrier that competes with Indian airlines on long-haul routes, said Rohit Ramachandran, chief executive officer, Jazeera Airways.

Jazeera Airways is a private Kuwaiti low-cost airline. It operates 30 weekly flights to eight cities in India but its growth has been slow due to limited traffic rights.

India and Kuwait revised the air service agreement in 2007 and carriers of both sides are entitled to deploy 12,000 seats per week each. But that limit has now got exhausted with the expansion of the Indian diaspora in Kuwait. 

The Kuwait government has sought extra 38,000 weekly seats and rights to operate in five cities, including Jaipur, Goa, Madurai, Amritsar, and Tiruchirappalli.

“India is incredibly important for us. India is our third-largest market in terms of passengers flown and revenue. Around 15 per cent of our revenue comes from Indian operations. We would like to grow in India but unfortunately, in the absence of extra entitlements, we will have to deploy our planes in other markets now,” he said.

Ramachandran is incidentally the only Indian CEO of a West Asian airline.

“We are a small airline and almost 85 per cent of our business comprises point-to-point traffic. We don’t have the desire and intention to compete with Indian carriers on long-haul routes,” he added.

“Almost 55 per cent of traffic between India and Kuwait is flying via a third point and that is not benefitting carriers from either side,” he said.

Last week, Jazeera Airways announced plans to set up a new airline in Saudi Arabia, its largest overseas market and is in the process of securing all approvals. “We don't have the intention to invest in any Indian airline,” he added.