Emirates makes strong pitch for increased bilateral flying rights

Emirates can operate 65,000 seats from Dubai to India in each direction every week.

Making a strong pitch for increased bilateral flying rights, Gulf major Emirates Airline’s President Sir Tim Clark on Tuesday said the group has had no increase in seats in India since 2015 and during this period, the country’s economy has grown at a great pace.

India is one of the fastest-growing aviation markets in the world and Gulf carriers have been seeking enhanced bilateral flying rights to operate more flights to and from the country. However, the government is not in favour of granting more bilateral flying rights. Emirates can operate 65,000 seats from Dubai to India in each direction every week.

According to him, Emirates has had no seat increase in India since 2015 and during this period, the Indian economy has moved at a great pace. At a media briefing on the sidelines of the IATA World Air Transport Summit here, Clark said that demand in and out of India is being compromised by an access policy, which ”I don’t think does them any favours”.

Emirates, which operates only wide-body A380s and B777s, flies to nine Indian cities and operates more than 160 weekly flights to India. Talking about Air India, which is now owned by Tata Group, Clark said the airline needs to make its way in the huge domestic market in India.

”And I believe that if Air India wants to expand, it can’t curtail the rights of foreign carriers from the countries that wish to expand into… it is very simple but arithmetic,” he said. He cited the example of Turkey, saying that the country opened up and built Turkish Airlines profitably. The country has built a huge airport and then allowed carriers to come in.

”And that’s a perfect model. I would suggest the Indian government (to) look seriously at that”. In March, Civil Aviation Secretary Rajiv Bansal said that India does not have plans ”as of now” to provide additional seats to Middle East carriers.

Clark said the Indian government has a sectoral approach. Whether it is Dubai to India and Abu Dhabi to India, Indian carriers can come from anywhere in India to Dubai but ”we can only go to the designated points of the Indian government allow us to do that”.

”Fundamentally, that’s not helpful. But that’s the way it is. We have made multiple approaches to the Indian government and they have been resolute in their response, which is no,” he noted. The reply was to a query as to whether Emirates and Etihad could come together and share their bilateral flying rights.

The Gulf carrier has a partnership with US-based United Airlines. Responding to a query related to the partnership in the Indian context, Clark said that United Airlines had applied to put its code on Emirates aircraft but the proposal was refused by the Indian government.

On whether Emirates would look to buy a stake in an Indian airline, Clark said he was not sure that such an acquisition would solve the problem with the Indian government. ”So if you buy this, you can have more access. I don’t think that’s part of the policy,” he added.