India, Kuwait to break ice on flight ban

Dubai: With Kuwait threatening to disallow landing of Air India and ‘Indian’ at its capital from Sunday, passengers planning to fly to India during summer holidays are now pinning hopes on the crucial talks between both countries.

While civil aviation authorities of both the countries are engaged in a second round of negotiations in New Delhi, the Indian Ambassador in Kuwait and Civil Aviation Ministry joint secretary are expected to hold parleys with their counterparts before July one in Kuwait.

"If the flights between the two countries are halted, the services of India's national carriers, Air India and ‘Indian’ to Kuwait will be heavily disrupted," a report in Kuwait Times said.

Travel agents, meanwhile, have said that they had not received any word from Air India or ‘Indian’ regarding Kuwait DGCA's decision to stop their flights.

"Passengers who have bookings with the two airlines are calling us and want to know whether the said airlines have taken into account the worst case scenario," one agent was quoted as saying in the Arab Times.

Despite the uncertainty, travel agents said, they were undertaking bookings of Air India and ‘Indian’.

"We will continue to do the bookings unless we receive any message from the Indian national carriers to stop the bookings."

The crisis for passengers between India and Kuwait was aggravated after the latter issued a notice to Air India and 'Indian' saying it will not receive flights of the airlines from July one.

The row was sparked after Kuwait asked India to increase seat capacities of Kuwait Airways and Jazeera Airways to and from India, while the Indian civil aviation authority is reportedly unwilling to grant the request as it feels that its national carriers will face stiff competition.

Top regional managers of both Air-India and ‘Indian’ in Dubai have said passengers wishing to cancel their flight bookings can do so without paying any cancellation charges.

Air-India operates 12 flights every week to Kuwait, while ‘Indian’ operates six flights on the same sector from different destinations in India.

Freddie Vaz, Air-India's Regional Director for Gulf, Middle East and North Africa, said: "We are still optimistic that bilateral talks between India and Kuwait will resolve this issue.

In case, Kuwait goes ahead with its decision, we are already looking at various alternatives."

"We are talking to other airlines about the feasibility of carrying our passengers to Kuwait on their flights from other Gulf destinations, including Dubai. We can re-route our passengers via Dubai, Bahrain and Doha," he added.

Abhay Pathak, Indian's Regional Director for Gulf, Middle East and North Africa also said that the carrier was looking at alternative arrangements.

Kuwait is home to some 550,000 Indians, many of whom travel during the summer school vacation.

Airfares to almost all destinations across the world have witnessed a 15 per cent rise since the start of June.