India to try and resolve air traffic row with China

New Delhi: A group of top officials representing various ministries met here on Wednesday in a bid to resolve an impasse with China over the issue of allowing more flights to the country. The impasse has come about with New Delhi withholding permission to Chinese cargo carrier, Great Wall of China, to fly into India on security grounds.

The Indian move sparked a counter response from Beijing, which refused to clear the flights of Jet Airways to Shanghai and that of Indian, soon to be merged with Air India, to Guangzhou.

According to government sources, an inter-ministerial group, including officials of the ministries of civil aviation, external affairs, finance and home, worked out some options at Wednesday's meeting.

"All options will be weighed and we will hold further consultations among ourselves before finalising our position," a senior official said here. According to sources though no solution has yet been arrived at, it was likely that the matter could be resolved by the end of this month.

Under the India-China bilateral air traffic rights agreement, concluded in March 2005, designated airlines of the two countries are allowed to operate 42 flights each week from the summer of 2006. The number of passenger seats was also supposed to rise from 5,600 in 2005 to 16,800 in the summer of 2006.

As for cargo services, the two sides have allowed unlimited rights to each other's cargo airlines with Fifth Freedom rights to operate to points beyond the two countries.

On the issue of denying flying rights to the cargo airline, Great Wall, Indian intelligence agencies had objected on the grounds that the company owning it was blacklisted by US agencies.

However, the Chinese side has now said the ownership of this carrier has changed hands.