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Jet makes a ‘major coup’

— FILE PHOTO

CHINA CONNECTION: Executive Director Saroj Datta (left) with CEO Wolfgang Prock-Schaner, Jet Airways, at the Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai.

With border incursions and trade deficits grabbing the headlines on the Sino-Indian front of late, there has been a low profile but nonetheless significant development in cross-Himalayan ties.

On June 14, India’s Jet Airways started up the first direct flights connecting Mumbai and Shanghai, bringing the commercial capitals of two of the world’s fastest growing economies closer together physically and symbolically. But of even g reater consequence is the fact that Jet simultaneously became the first foreign airline to be granted what is called “fifth freedom traffic rights” by China.

This refers to the rights of an airline from one country to land in a second country and pick up more passengers before flying on to a third country. Jet’s daily flights to Shanghai thus proceed to San Francisco in the United States, allowing the airline to route passengers directly from both Mumbai and Shanghai to the U.S.

That the first non-American or non-Chinese airline to connect the United States and China is an Indian one is a “major coup” according to sources in the Indian embassy in China, who say negotiations leading up to the deal were arduous.

Although the provision for a bilateral granting of fifth freedom rights was built into a civil aviation agreement signed between the two countries in 2005, when Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao visited New Delhi, it took almost three years for Jet to finally win Chinese government clearance.

The reason for the foot dragging on the Chinese side was that New Delhi had at one point blocked the entry of Chinese cargo carrier Great Wall Airlines to Mumbai and Chennai, reportedly due to key nuclear facilities being located near these two airports. The Indian government’s apprehensions, enquiries show, sprang from the fact that one of the former owners of the airline in question — China Great Wall Industry Corporation — was blacklisted by the U.S. for alleged transfer of missile technology to Iran.

Beijing’s obstruction of Jet Airways’ plans was thus a retaliatory measure. New Delhi finally cleared the way for Great Wall Airlines in January this year, during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s China visit. A few months later Jet was given the go ahead to start up its Mumbai-Shanghai-San Francisco flights.

Jet’s story in China is reflective both of the remaining suspicions that scar the India-China relationship as well as of the solid work that is being done behind the scenes to smooth the way for the burgeoning economic engagement between the two countries.

The fact is that not only has China emerged as India’s largest trading partner, (bilateral trade for the first six months of 2008 was worth $29 billion) but also that China’s trade with India is fast growing.

This mushrooming economic dimension to bilateral ties has been reflected in a steady increase in air connectivity. From being linked by a lone bi-weekly Ethiopian Airlines flight in 2001, there are now well over 30 weekly connections between India and China. New Delhi is currently linked to Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, Kolkata to Kunming and Jet’s new flights now link Mumbai to Shanghai.

Under the 2005 civil aviation agreement there is room for further growth with up to 42 weekly flights between the two nations permitted.

But Zhang Jingwei, Jet’s General Manager in China, believes that even this number will soon be outpaced by demand. He points to the fact that China and the U.S. have some 100 weekly flights. .

With China’s Hainan Airlines scheduled to launch flights between Beijing and Mumbai later this year and Shanghai Airlines also planning another Shanghai-Mumbai link, Mr Zhang believes weekly flights between India and China might zoom to 100 within the next 5-10 years. “And that’s a conservative estimate,” he says with a smile.

PALLAVI AIYAR

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