1.Business Standard editorial Jan 18: < For the two million passengers who travel between India and the United States-and the number is growing significantly each year-the decision to have an aviation pact between the two countries is good news .. If India is to make the most of this pact, other related issues need to be tackled. One relates to airport infrastructure-which is poor by global standards. Another is the excessively high sales and other taxes on aviation fuel. These ensure that Indian airlines pay 30-40 per cent more than foreign carriers for tanking up. Given the importance of fuel prices in airline economics, Indian carriers are at a significant disadvantage vis-a-vis their global competitors.>
2.Financial Expreess editorial Jan 18: <Civil aviation has been one of the more happening ministries in the Manmohan Singh administration and the 'open skies' agreement between Indian and US governments is the latest instance. It is good news, as would be any agreement to open a sector to competition. It replaces one signed almost half a century before, ...The harm to consumer welfare from the socialist belief that choice in aviation (and much else) must be constricted gets spotlit only occasionally. The limited (five months, starting November 1) open-skies experiment of the civil aviation ministry has already resulted in requests from foreign airlines to operate upwards of 1,600 additional services in that period, a provision of 50,000 more seats than in the same length of time last year. ...The point is that a big agenda remains to be implemented in aviation, to energise the sector into one where consumer demand determines fares and service options >