Air India plans to restrict competition on global routes to bounce back to profit

According to a turnaround plan prepared by SBI Caps and vetted by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India (DTTIPL), the government will not enter into any bilateral agreements with foreign carriers till 2014-2015, the period when the loss-making national carrier, Air India, hopes to turnaround and report profits. This is one of the key assumptions in the plan for the airline to gain market share in the international sector. The airline has projected the Middle-East, South-East Asia and Western Europe to contribute around 80 per cent of its international passenger traffic over 2010-2015.

According to a report in The Indian Express, the success of the plan largely depends on restricting competition for the carrier in the international arena by allowing it to continue exercising the Right of First Refusal (RoFR) on utilisation of Indian bilatcrals with various countries.