The United States has asked India to seek prior approval for all repatriation flights, citing "competitive imbalance".

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The June 22 order will come into effect after 30 days.

As per the order, Air India will have to seek permission from the US, 30 days prior to operating a repatriation flight date and 10 days prior to operating a cargo flight.

The Department of Transportation of the US has told India that some of its repatriation flights have gone "beyond true evacuation". While India has banned commercial international flights, it was allowing general public to buy tickets on India-US flights.

Simultaneously, India has not granted permission to Delta airlines for operating repatriation flights, thereby making Air India the sole beneficiary of the repatriation flights, the US department added.

"The U.S. Government (“USG”) views this situation, in which Indian carriers may perform charters services that U.S. carriers may not, and the resulting competitive imbalance, as inconsistent with U.S. carrier rights under Article 11 and Annex II of the Agreement," the US government department further said regarding "restrictive and discriminatory treatment" of US airlines.

On June 3, 2020, Air India had released a schedule for additional repatriation flights that included 49 U.S.-India round-trip charter flights that are scheduled to operate between June 10-July 1, 2020.

Further, On June 13, Air India released a schedule for 10 additional repatriation flights between June 20-July 3, 2020.

The US has noted that while Air India operated 34 round-trip flights per week to the US before the suspension of international flights, Air India will be operating 59 flights between June 10 and July 3, hence it will be operating at 53% of pre-COVID schedule.

"As such, it appears that Air India may be using its passenger repatriation charters as a way of circumventing the GoI-imposed prohibition of all scheduled services. This situation creates a competitive disadvantage for U.S. carriers vis-à-vis Indian carriers, in contravention of the fair and equal opportunity to compete provision of Article 11 of the Agreement," the Department of Transportation said.

First Published:Jun 23, 2020 11:49 AM IST