Qatar Airways is not interested in buying stakes of up to 49 percent in Indian carriers, its chief executive said on Tuesday, but added the Doha-based airline would make an exception for the country's leading carrier IndiGo.

"I am not interested in 49 percent FDI in Indian carriers, the only time I said I will be interested was with Indigo," Chief Executive Akbar al-Baker told CNBC-TV18 on the sidelines of the International Aviation Summit.Indian government currently allows foreign direct investment (FDI) of up to 49 percent in local carriers. Interested companies have to get clearances from Foreign Investments Promotions Board and the ministry before making the investment.

"Unfortunately India’s biggest enemy is bureaucracy... Don’t understand this fright about foreign investors investing in India airlines sector. Bureaucracy should not get involved in progress of India," said al-Baker.

The CEO of major Gulf airline is looking to foray into the Indian aviation space with a bigger stake in hand. He said the company wants to start a full service carrier in India that will be run by Indian board with an Indian chairman at the helm.

"It will eventually be a 100 aircraft airline if we invest in India. (We) will not pussyfoot if we invest in India, will come with a big bang," said al-Baker.

The 56-year old chief is keen on investing in Interglobe Aviation Ltd’s IndiGo as it is "an efficiently run airline".

"Won’t rule out any future opportunity for investing in Indigo ... If Indigo approaches us we will be interested," he said.

With regards to Qatar's seats quota under bilateral traffic lights, al-Baker said that despite the increase in overall seats utilisation, there isn't much progress on the ground.

"When it comes to bilaterals, unfortunately it seems we are not liked at civil aviation ministry," he said.

Under bilateral traffic rights, the number of weekly flights or seats a country's airlines are allowed to operate in another nation is fixed through a bilateral agreement.

"Initially we were told that seat utilisation in Qatar-India bilaterals was less than 80 percent. Current seat utilisation in Qatar-India bilaterals is 84 percent and yet we are not progressing on talks. The least we can get is additional traffic rights through bilaterals."

First Published:Sept 4, 2018 5:15 PM IST