KB flies Paro-CCU-BKK 5 times a week.

Karan,

I am getting nostalgic. Quite a few I remember:

SU on DEL-SIN or BKK

HM on BOM-DXB

AC on DEL-LHR

BI on CCU-DXB (look like DXB is always up for grabs )

and SU on CCU-SGN or HAN (with IL62, only SU could bring two communist brothers together!)

Back in the late 70s and '80s you also had:

Swissair: BOM-HKG and BOM-MNL

Lufthansa: BOM-SIN-SYD

Alitalia: BOM-BKK

Sabena: BOM- somewhere in SE Asia

AF: BOM-BKK-HKG

BA: BOM-BKK-HKG

SQ: BOM-DXB-ZRH-LHR, then it was just BOM-LHR, which then turned into BOM-MAN

Remember that back in the day, India was often just a stop on a milk run for a lot of European airlines.  I remembered with awe back in 1979 when our BA VC-10 terminated in BOM (making a stop in BEY no less).

Nimish wrote:

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tayara mechanici wrote:

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glad the list is not huge, imagine EK,EY & QR flying east & north via BOM, DEL, MAA. We would have been the only country in the world with the top 20 airlines (rev & pax) operating in it registered abroad.

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Frankly - I could not care less if it were an Indian carrier or a carrier from abroad, so long as I get great service/connectivity at a sensible price.

As it is, AI/IC/9W/S2 today barely cater to a small % of the total intl traffic from India.

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because of the restrictive aviation policy in place.

Had you been travelling intl in the year 1994 you would realise where i am coming from. All of the  gulf airlines had stopped services to India due to the plague scare............ I was transiting at LHR in Oct'94 from the gulf to USA. And you could see all the Indians being hearded to the end of the runway to be fumigated and disinfected first in the aircraft and then again at the airport clinic, not a very pleasant sight.

I hope and pray that indian aviation grows on the strength of Airlines from India firstly for the above reasons and secondly a more personal, so that Aviation personnel have better oppurtunities within India (like the technies) and don't have to end up as second class citizens in a foreign country if they wish to progress. 

Nimish wrote:

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tayara mechanici wrote:

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I hope and pray that indian aviation grows on the strength of Airlines from India firstly for the above reasons and secondly a more personal, so that Aviation personnel have better oppurtunities within India (like the technies) and don't have to end up as second class citizens in a foreign country if they wish to progress. 

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I completely agree with this reason.

Though not relevant to this topic but since the posts are leading towards a patriotic stream, i would like to add here that i had started a topic on ''what does this forum mean to you'' in site related thread some time back. Unfortunately it got into a shouting match and was closed. Basically i wanted to express my views there, where in i was looking at getting the members to canvass with their local MPs and MLAs to espouse views strengthening Indian aviation and Indian airlines. On an individual level i have been writing to my known acquaintances in Congress (MP) and Shivsena(MLA) towards this end.

This forum can be quite a powerful medium especially in a country like India which is growing up as a democracy and a economic giant.

vabby wrote:

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Keeping the thread very much intact if i am not wrong UL,s BOM-CMB flight actually originates from KHI so will that be treated as a 5th freedom right.

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If you go to the MoCA site http://civilaviation.nic.in/ under policies, you can see the bilaterals with various countries. I have no idea about its recency.

To ans you Q, if they are not allowed to carry pax between BOM-KHI-BOM than it is not a 5th freedom right.