The Union Civil Aviation Ministry is likely to send a note this week to the Cabinet Secretariat, seeking a post-facto approval for the seat-sharing pact between Etihad Airways and Jet Airways where India offered an additional 36,670 seats on flights between the two countries over the next three years. The bilateral agreement was signed on the same day in April when the Jet-Etihad deal was announced.
The Prime Minister’s Office, in a note on June 13, told Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh that the PMO had several reservations about giving away extra seats to the Arab emirate. The PMO note followed several complaints by MPs like Jaswant Singh, Dinesh Trivedi and Subramaniam Swamy, who alleged that the Indian government signed the seat-sharing pact to facilitate the Jet-Etihad deal.
Etihad is the national airline of Abu Dhabi, and the MPs alleged that more seats to Abu Dhabi would benefit only them. If the deal is cleared, Etihad will get 24 per cent stake in the private Indian airline for Rs 2,058 crore. The MPs argue this means that Abu Dhabi would effectively become a hub for long distance Indian passengers flying to Europe and North America.
Under the deal, the combined network of the two airlines will connect more than 38 domestic Indian airports to virtually all the major international airports across the Atlantic Ocean.
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