Six countries add Point of Call status in Indian skies in last three years – NetworkThoughts

Bilateral rights has been a contentious issue for the last couple of years. From the repeated news about the UAE wanting to negotiate bilateral rights and add more seats to India from Dubai, to calls for having UAE under one Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA) and not multiple as is the case currently, a lot gets spoken and written from time to time. There have been some news reports indicating proposals to have disproportionate seat entitlement where Indian carriers get more seats as compared to foreign carriers. Overall, most bilateral agreements have not moved while there has been an update to a handful in the last ten years. These handful include Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Indonesia, Australia, Canada and some are part of the guidelines under the National Civil Aviation Policy, while many are not.

Over the last two decades (or even more), the Bilateral Air Services Agreement has assumed more significance as a tool for trade and external affairs and not just civil aviation. Amongst the calls for adding certain points within India as part of POC (Point of Call), the Ministry of Civil Aviation has answered a question by Dr. John Brittas, Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) on the POC status over the last few years. (Question 2582, answered on March 24, 2025)

Six countries have got additional Point of Calls since 2022 as per the answer. This includes Ethiopia, Italy, Azerbaijan, Vietnam and Indonesia with Vietnam getting the update twice. The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) has classified the Bilateral Air Services Agreement as an important document with strategic importance and has since removed the details from its website. Thus information like POC, Seats or frequencies are no longer in the public domain. 

The summary of the increase is as below,

1. 2022
   1. Ethiopia (Hyderabad)
   2. Italy (Amritsar, in lieu of Kochi)
2. 2023
   1. Azerbaijan (Delhi and Mumbai)
   2. Vietnam (Hyderabad and Bengaluru)
   3. Indonesia (Hyderabad and Bengaluru)
3. 2024
   1. Uzbekistan (Bengaluru, Kolkata, Hyderabad)
   2. Vietnam (Chennai and Kolkata)

Interestingly, Ethiopian to Hyderabad, Italian flagged carriers to Amritsar, AZAL to Delhi and Mumbai and Vietnamese carriers to Hyderaabd and Bengaluru are either a reality or announcements to that effect have been made. 

For Indonesia, it has been a while since any of the Indonesian carriers operated non-stop to India, with the last being Garuda Indonesia to Mumbai from Bali. On the other side of the pandemic, Bali has become a top destination for Indians with IndiGo operating from Bengaluru and Air India from Delhi. If and when flights start to Hyderabad and Bengaluru, it will be interesting to see if Indonesian carriers – largely AirAsia group, leveraging its hub at Kuala Lumpur or fly non-stop?

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