Tarmac tension

On the sidelines of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to China, there was quite a bit of lobbying. For one, Jet Airways head Naresh Goyal worked overtime to get his airline passage to China as India cleared the flights of Great Wall Airlines to Mumbai and Chennai, despite earlier security objections. Jet may now use Shanghai as a transit point. Amid this, however, there was no mention of Air India’s plans to fly to Guangzhou, a part of the deal struck by the authorities when Chinese President Hu Jintao visited India, a quid pro quo for the Great Wall clearance. Now that the turbulence has settled somewhat, will Air India fly to Guangzhou? No word on that yet.