<The Jet-Sahara combine will account for 85% of the flights in the lucrative Delhi-Mumbai route that accounts for nearly 50% of total domestic traffic. Jet Airways will also have 50% of all parking bays while Indian Airlines will have approximately 35%. Post-acquisition, Jet will dominate the country's two busiest airports, where it will control nearly all flights - and that too at peak hours.> --------- If Jet-Sahara accounts for 85% of Delhi-Mumbai flights then what would be the position once Indian's (IA's)flights are also added? (The parking bays of the three are said to add up to 85% too!) Do the newcomers have only a minuscule share of this traffic? If so, then what difference would the Jet-Sahara combine make there anyway?
It may be high time that an independent regulator was created to oversee commercial matters in civil aviation. Otherwise, market power could conceivably be used to squeeze newcomers on routes they depend on for their survival and thus drive them out of business (or gobble them up as Jet has done to Sahara). The regulator needs to act fast as this could happen in a jiffy and nothing could be done to prevent it! Is Indian civil aviation regulation up to the challenge?
