China opens air space for Jet flight to San Francisco

Chinese and Indian civil aviation authorities on Wednesday met here to resolve their differences over fifth freedom rights in their air bilateral agreement...

Chinese and Indian civil aviation authorities on Wednesday met here to resolve their differences over fifth freedom rights in their air bilateral agreement and it is learnt that the former has, after a lot of persuasion, agreed to allow San Francisco as a ‘beyond point’ for India. Fifth freedom rights refer to the right to carry passengers from one’s own country to a second country, and from there to a third country. So, with San Francisco agreed upon as a ‘beyond point’ by China, an Indian airline can fly to China and from there to San Francisco. This is good news for private airline Jet Airways which has been keenly waiting to service destinations on the US west coast.

Meanwhile, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has shot off a notice to Chinese cargo carrier Great Wall Airline to submit its documents for security clearance at the earliest. India had permitted Great Wall Airlines earlier this year to fly to Mumbai and Chennai besides Delhi, despite security concerns by the National Security Council secretariat and other agencies. The Government was expecting China to reciprocate by granting permission to Jet Airways to fly in. The Great Wall Airline, in spite of permission, is yet to approach the DGCA to start operations to these destinations in India. Accordingly, the DGCA has sent it a reminder.

Jet Airways has long been waiting to develop Shanghai as its Asia-Pacific hub to take off to the US west coast and service destinations such as Los Angeles and San Francisco. During the January visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Beijing, the two countries had agreed to restrict the right of one carrier from each country to fly to three regions beyond the two countries. India has long been eyeing China as a transit point to the US west coast and was hoping the latter would give Jet Airways permission to do so soon after the PM’s visit. However, China had held back the permissions citing ‘technical reasons’ and claiming that the three ‘beyond points’ were yet to be decided.

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As per the bilateral agreement, each country’s carriers are permitted to operate 42 services per week to or from each country. While India operates only four flights, China operates 18 flights between the two nations every week. China disputes the 42 weekly services issue and that has to be resolved with the Chinese authorities. On the first of the two-day (March 19 and 20) meeting between authorities of the two nations, San Francisco has been decided upon as one of the three ‘beyond points’ destinations for India. The two countries are likely to decide on the rest of the destinations and outstanding issues on fifth freedom rights in their meeting on Thursday.

Jet Airways is in a hurry to start its operations to the US west coast and had even requested the Ministry of Civil Aviation that it be allowed to do so via Hong Kong by May 2008, well before rival Kingfisher launches its non-stop flight from Bangalore to San Francisco in August.

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