Govt open to enhance bilaterals with Gulf: Aviation Minister

Mumbai, Aug 23 (PTI) Civil Aviation Minister AshokGajapathi Raju today said the government is ready to opennegotiations with the Gulf nations in general and Dubai inparticular to enhance the bilateral air traffic rights betweenthe two markets. "Since the past two years there has been a tremendousimprovement in the utilisation levels of the bilaterals by ourairlines with the Gulf nations. While it is around 80 per centfor the region as a whole, with Dubai it is over 90 per centnow. "And with the limits being reached, we are ready to opennegotiations with them again. I think we should begin withDubai shortly," he told a select group of reporters here. But Raju was quick to add that the negotiations will notbe one-sided, as it has been in the past, but will clearly bemutually beneficial. "As the aviation minister, my job is to secure ournational interests and not someone else’s. Though a lot of badthings have happened in the past, I cannot set the clock back.But going forward, I will secure our interests first," he saidwhen asked why not let the market and capacity determine it asthe ultimate beneficiaries will be the consumers. In the previous negotiations, none of the Gulf nationsgave India any benefit at the bilateral talks, but that willnot happen again, he said when pointed out that higher seatsper week will bring down the prices of tickets and benefit thepassengers. However, the minister did not elaborate on what are"our losses". Between India and the Gulf, around 4.2 lakh seats areavailable every week with Dubai leading the chart with 66,504seats each per week followed by Abu Dhabi with 50,000 seatseach plus 2 per cent additional. (MORE) PTI BEN NSKKISSDM