AIR INDIA BLAMES BI-LATERAL AGREEMENTS WITH FOREIGN CARRIERS FOR ITS MISFORTUNES

It has been reported that Air India has defaulted on interest payments and has been forced to delay salaries. Indian newspaper Mint, reports that the airline has blamed its current financial difficulties on the government’s liberal grant of traffic rights to foreign airlines between January 2004 and March 2010, which was a period when Indian airlines could not take advantage in the increase in capacity entitlements. Air India is claimed to have written in a note to the government: “Since the foreign carriers operate much more than the Indian carriers and also pre-empt the Indian carriers from expanding in various markets,