The lucrative Gulf routes will no longer be the sole domain of public carriers Indian and Air India.
Jet Airways and its subsidiary Jetlite could be the first private Indian airlines given permission to fly there.Civil Aviation Ministry sources tell CNN-IBN Jet could soon fly to Dubai, Abu Dabhi, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait and Bahrain.
Permissions are likely in a few weeks. But flights cannot start before January, when the government ban on private sector flights to the Gulf is lifted.
The ban dates back to 2004 when private airlines were allowed to fly abroad but kept out of this revenue-generating route
Currently both public carriers together can operate about 85,400 seats weekly to the Gulf. But they are able to utilise just half this number, mostly due to the shortage of aircraft.
12/09/07 CNN-IBN/Daijiworld.com
Thursday, September 13, 2007