Allow A380 into India if you believe in fairplay: Airbus

Airbus, the Toulouse-based aviation giant, has urged the Indian government to allow its flagship A380 to fly to India if the country believed in "free and fair markets", Tushar Srivastava reports.

Airbus, the Toulouse-based aviation giant, has urged the Indian government to allow its flagship A380 to fly to India if the country believed in "free and fair markets".

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It said that no other country except India was blocking the A380, the world's largest commercial aircraft. "India should believe in fair and free markets," Kiran Rao, executive vice-president, (sales & marketing), Airbus told the Hindustan Times. "The A380 must be given a chance to fly to India. It flies everywhere else in the world." Airbus is a part of the EADS group.

Singapore, Germany and UAE have sought permission to operate the super jumbo to India.

"The reason why the Indian government doesn't want the A380 is because they know that it brings huge success to the airline that operates it. We have seen it everywhere the A380 has come, it has generated vast profits for the airline that operates it," Rao said.

Indian government, he said, knows that if it allowed the A380 then the airlines that are already weak will suffer because they don't have the A380 to fight back.

Rao said India was very important for Airbus. "If Indian aviation succeeds then Airbus also succeeds," he said.