Our Bureau
New Delhi
It is another bad news for the Turkish government as the Indian government has announced cancellation of any ties with Turkish airlines. It is being reported that it is highly unlikely that the government will extend the leasing agreement between InterGlobe Aviation Ltd and Turkish Airlines.
The current agreement enables the IndiGo airlines to operate flights on the Mumbai-Delhi-Istanbul route. Under the agreement, Turkish Airlines provides two aircrafts with pilots and select crew to Indigo. The agreement is all set to expire on May 31st and there is a high chance that there is no renewal of the agreement. These moves indicate a further strain in India and Turkey’s bilateral ties which took a big hit when Turkey chose to help Pakistan in their recent conflicts with India.
The renewal of the agreement is highly unlikely to happen but it is certain that the Government of India will take any action only after having proper discussions with IndiGo. The discussions are very important as various stakeholders are involved with the company and there are a lot of competing interests in play.
Meanwhile Air India has also reached out to the Indian authorities in regard to IndiGo’s lease pact with the Turkish Airlines. They have requested for an immediate cancellation of this agreement as there might be heavy security concerns due to the Turkish government’s backing of Pakistan. Air India has petitioned the Civil Aviation ministry to not renew the lease pact with Turkey after 31st May as according to them the deal benefits Turkey and is actually damaging India’s aviation sector.
The Ministry of Aviation last week terminated the security clearance of Turkish firm Celebi. The company used to handle the ground operations across nine airports in India. This turned out to be a boon for other Indian companies who were ready to take over the Celebi’s operational deal. Indian counterparts of Celebi – IndoThai, AISATS and the Bird Group didn’t waste time to grab the opportunity at the airports in Mumbai and Delhi.
