Absence of resources is the main reason for Indian domestic carriers not undertaking international flying operations, the civil aviation ministry informed parliament on Tuesday.
"The primary reason for low utilisation of traffic rights by Indian carriers includes lack of adequate resources and financial strength of Indian carriers," Jayant Sinha, the Minister of State for Civil Aviation, said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, reported the Press Trust of India.
He also said that the lack of finances also hampers the ability of domestic airlines to use bilateral air-traffic rights, also called the Air Service Agreement (ASA) that is signed between two nations to allows commercial flying operations to carriers between them.
India currently has Air Services Agreement with 104 countries.
In December 2015, the Federation of Indian Airlines (FIA) had informed the government that domestic carriers did not receive any usable slots at Dubai International Airport. "However, as on date all Indian carriers are utilising almost all entitlements on the India-Dubai sector," Sinha said.
Domestic air carriers such as Air India, Indigo, Jet Airways, SpiceJet and Go Air flew about 79.75 lakh passengers last month on domestic routes. This marked a growth of over 20 percent when compared to the figure of 66.01 lakh passengers who flew in June 2015.
However, the number of passengers who flew in June this year had decreased from 86.69 lakh in May.
Shares of domestic aviation carriers rallied on the Bombay Stock Exchange on Wednesday. The SpiceJet stock was trading at Rs. 64.90 at around 12.35 p.m., up 4.59 percent. Similarly, shares of InterGlobe Aviation and Jet Airways were trading at Rs. 951.60 and Rs. 579.85 apiece, up 1.07 percent and 2.43 percent, respectively, from its previous close.
