Open Skies Over Eurasia: Subhash Goyal Makes the Case for an India Russia Travel Boom

Picture a crowded conference hall in New Delhi. The air is thick with the murmur of airline executives, tour operators, hoteliers and trade delegates. Somewhere near the front, a veteran of Indian travel rises to speak and makes a promise that sounds almost too generous to be believed. Give India and Russia an open sky policy, he says, and within two years tourism and trade between the two countries will climb by 50 to 100 per cent. This is not a slogan tossed out for applause. It is the considered assessment of Subhash Goyal, Chairman of the Indian Chamber of Commerce Aviation and Tourism Expert Committee and Chairman of STIC Travels.

Goyal has spent a lifetime watching Indian travelers fan out across the globe, and he knows precisely where the bottlenecks sit. His case carries weight because it comes from someone who has filled the seats, negotiated with carriers and argued before regulators for decades. When a voice like that says the ceiling can double, the industry leans in.

Who Is Subhash Goyal and Why His Voice Carries

Outside the travel trade the name may not ring a bell. Inside it, Subhash Goyal is close to an institution. As Chairman of STIC Travels he has built one of India’s most recognized travel groups, and as head of the Indian Chamber of Commerce Aviation and Tourism Expert Committee he sits exactly where airlines, airports, tour operators and policymakers collide. That vantage point gives him a rare look at both the demand side and the rule book side of the business. He is not speaking as a dreamer. He is speaking as a man who has watched routes open, flourish and quietly die, and who can read the commercial weather before most people feel the wind.

What an Open Sky Policy Actually Means

The phrase sounds technical and turns out to be wonderfully simple. Under an open sky arrangement, two governments step back and let airlines decide how often they fly, where they fly and what aircraft they deploy, instead of rationing capacity through negotiated quotas. Today, air services between India and Russia move through bilateral agreements that cap weekly frequencies and designate which carriers may operate. Those caps act like a narrow gate. Widen the gate, and traffic decides its own shape.

Think of it as turning a single lane into a highway. The passengers, the cargo, the families and the business travelers already exist; what limits them is the number of permitted departures. An open sky policy does not invent demand, it simply stops strangling it. That distinction matters, because it explains why Goyal frames the policy as a catalyst rather than a subsidy. No public money changes hands. No new airport has to be built. The reform is administrative, cheap, and in his reading, immediately rewarding.

The Arithmetic Behind a 50 to 100 Per Cent Jump

Is the number realistic? Start with the base. India and Russia share decades of warm political ties, a substantial student population, a steady flow of business visitors, and a growing appetite among Indian travelers for new destinations beyond the usual Western capitals. Yet the number of direct flights linking the two countries remains modest, and most itineraries still route through third countries that add hours, cost and visa complications. That friction suppresses demand every single day. Remove it and the suppressed demand surfaces quickly, which is precisely how a market can jump by half or double inside a couple of years.

Goyal’s second argument is momentum. Aviation markets do not grow in straight lines. When capacity rises, fares soften, tour operators build packages, airlines advertise, and a destination that felt remote suddenly feels plausible. Each of those steps feeds the next. Add smoother visa processing and a stronger marketing push, and a 50 to 100 per cent rise stops looking like a fantasy and starts looking like a forecast. The point is not that the number is guaranteed. The point is that the obstacles are policy choices rather than physics.

Tourists First, Cargo and Commerce Close Behind

Tourism is the visible half of the story. Indian travelers are among the most sought after in the world, and Russia has the ingredients that move them: grand cities, dramatic landscapes, distinctive cuisine and a cultural depth that photographs well and tells stories even better. For Russian visitors, India offers warmth, wellness, weddings, beaches and a heritage circuit that never stops giving. Better connectivity turns those possibilities into bookings. Travel agents on both sides say the same thing in different words, which is that the demand is already waiting for the seats.

The quieter half of the story is cargo. Passenger aircraft carry belly freight, and more flights mean more of it. Pharmaceuticals, farm produce, textiles, machinery and consumer goods can all move faster and cheaper when holds are full of capacity rather than rationed. In a world where supply chains are being rewritten, a shorter and more reliable corridor between India and Russia is not a convenience, it is a strategic asset. Trade, in other words, does not only follow the flag. It follows the flight schedule.

The Middle Class Is Already Packing

There is a demographic engine humming beneath all of this. India’s middle class is travelling younger, travelling further and travelling more often than any generation before it, and it is hungry for destinations that feel different from the well worn circuit. A Russia itinerary that once demanded courage, patience and a fat wallet becomes ordinary once flights are plentiful and prices competitive. Group tours, honeymoon packages, student exchanges and long weekend escapes all become sellable products the moment the schedule allows them. Demand does not need to be created. It needs to be given an exit.

Then there is the traffic flowing the other way. Russian travelers seeking sun, ayurveda, yoga retreats, wedding destinations and heritage tours are a natural fit for India, and they represent high value visitors who stay longer and spend across sectors. Medical travel adds another layer, as does education. Each of these segments has its own season, its own price point and its own agent network, which means more flights would not simply move the same people around. They would open entirely new conversations between two societies that already respect each other.

The Hurdles Nobody Wants to Talk About

None of this happens by wishing. Airlines need aircraft, financing, insurance and slots, and the current global environment has made some of those items awkward and expensive. Bilateral rights must be renegotiated with care, because an open sky deal is still a deal. Airports need ground handling that can absorb growth. Tour operators need payment channels that work smoothly. And regulators need the confidence that safety oversight will keep pace with expansion.

Goyal’s answer is that these are practical problems with practical solutions, and that the cost of inaction, measured in lost passengers and lost trade, is far higher than the cost of negotiation. That is the part of his argument that deserves the most attention, because it reframes the debate. The question is no longer whether India can afford an open sky policy. The question is whether it can afford to keep the gate narrow while competitors widen theirs.

What Travelers Would Actually Feel on the Ground

For the ordinary passenger, the change would show up in small mercies. More departure times to choose from. Shorter journeys instead of long detours through a third hub. Fares that respond to competition rather than to a quota. Weekend trips that once felt impossible becoming routine. Students flying home for the holidays without planning their entire year around a single weekly flight. Families visiting relatives without the ritual of the two connection itinerary. These are not abstract policy wins. They are the texture of a relationship between two nations, and connectivity is what knits that texture together.

A Window That Will Not Stay Open Forever

Timing gives Goyal’s appeal its urgency. Aviation markets are being redrawn right now, as carriers hunt for new routes and travelers hunt for new experiences. Every month that passes without better connectivity is a month in which Indian tourists choose another destination, and Russian visitors choose another beach. Habits formed in that gap tend to stick. Once a traveler discovers a substitute, winning them back takes years of investment. An open sky policy is therefore not just an efficiency measure. It is a claim on future demand, filed while the market is still soft enough to shape.

Subhash Goyal’s proposal is refreshingly concrete: reduce friction, release capacity, and let tourism and trade respond. If his forecast of a 50 to 100 per cent increase materializes, the winners will include airlines, airports, hotels, exporters, students, families and the two economies at large. If it does not, the experiment costs almost nothing and teaches plenty. The open sky idea deserves more than a mention in a conference speech. It deserves a negotiating table, a timetable and a signature. The skies between India and Russia are waiting, and so are the passengers.