Washington: Government subsidies have forced major US airlines out of the Indian market, a top airlines executive has said. "India is a very big country. It has a huge trade relationship with the US, particularly for IT, has huge agricultural trade between the two countries," chief executive of Delta Airlines Richard Anderson told reporters yesterday during a luncheon meeting at the National Press Club.

"But in essence we don't really have any aviation trade. We have exited the market completely," Anderson said. "Because essentially what these carriers have done is with subsidised government strategies, come into the marketplace to basically shift the traffic off of us and take us out of the Indian market," he said. "And think about it.