Turkmenistan Airlines has been allowed to fly to Kochi and Ahmedabad, above its existing capacity entitlement, after Turkmenistan's ambassador wrote to the Indian civil aviation authorities with this request, say highly-placed sources adding that the routine process of holding bilateral talks was ignored.

No other foreign airline has been given permission, as yet, to fly to Kochi airport which was commissioned nearly a year ago as the country's first international airport with 40 per cent equity participation from the private sector.

According to a note verbale (diplomatic note) issued by the ministry of civil aviation to the Embassy of Turkmenistan, this airline would be permitted to operate a total of 550 seats per week in each direction to and from Ahmedabad and 400 seats per week in each direction to and from Kochi.

The operation of these services shall be subject to a code share or block space agreement with India's national carrier. Over and above, the Indian carrier shall be permitted to operate 950 seats per week between points in India and Ashgabad (capital of Turkmenistan).

Civil Aviation Minister Sharad Yadav has, however, defended his ministry's decision. "Kochi needs to be made viable and there are some decisions taken on a diplomatic level, thereby this decision was taken," he told The Financial Express.

Industry observers see little logic of appointing this airline to fly on these sectors with little or no traffic bound from Kochi to Ashgabad as the demand is for sectors in West Asia. Similarly, the outbound traffic from Ahmedabad is largely headed for the UK or the US.

Sources point out that Indian Airlines (IA) has raised objections to the code-share agreement as it would fetch them no business and instead they should be given a royalty on seats.

This is being perceived as a unilateral decision. IA managing director Sunil Arora was unavailable for any comments.Turkmenistan Airlines' general sales agent for India, Jagdish Yadav, when contacted for comments, said: "I think there was a bilateral agreement, but you need to ask the airline directly."

It has been alleged that the airline was given these two sectors, overlooking major carriers from Gulf, as the minister's wife and Mr Yadav's wife are related.

Mr Yadav, however, claims he is not related to the minister. "There is no relationship between me and the minister. I belong to Rajasthan and he is either from Bihar or MP. The only thing common is our caste," Mr Jagdish Yadav said.

Interestingly, Turkmenistan Airlines had received permission to start operations to Amritsar early this year after a bilateral agreement was signed and it's unusual for any airline to be given additional capacity within such a short span of time, sources add.