In a big breaking, it has been found that the country of UAE has been demanding the Indian Government to increase seats between the two countries by another 50,000 per week. This development between India and UAE could be lethal and could prove to be a big blow to the airlines in India.
Dubai Civil Aviation Authority director-general Mohammed A Ahli has recently penned down a letter to the Union civil aviation minister of India, Jyotiraditya Scindia. It is been known that Mohammed A Ahli has asked India to allow Amritsar, Tiruchirapalli, Coimbatore, Kannur, Goa, Bhubaneswar, Guwahati, and Pune to become additional points of call for Dubai carriers. If the request gets a nod from the Indian Government then these points would be among the most lucrative routes for the UAE carriers.
The UAE’s flagship carrier, Emirates, already operates some of the most profitable routes between India and the UAE and thus unsurprisingly the Indian carriers are vehemently opposing more seats for the Gulf airlines. The Dubai-based airline currently operates from nine cities in the country namely, Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kolkata, and Thiruvananthapuram.
And now with respect to the recent development, the government of UAE has been building pressure on India to provide permission for some more flights. Earlier, Emirates President Tim Clark had asked the Indian government to open up more routes and had brushed aside opposition from Indian carriers.
“The Dubai-India air transport sector continues to be the cornerstone of all such businesses as well as in bringing together the people and exchange of ideas between our two nations,” wrote Mr Ahli in his letter to Scindia. Furthermore, he has also mentioned that India and UAE have taken a series of steps to further promote trade and commerce as well as cooperation in various areas.
Need for enhancing air connectivity between Dubai and India is stronger than ever before – Ahli
Further, the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority director-general has said, “agreement between our two States to update the entitlements of the respective designated airlines is of vital importance.”
“As your esteemed offices will be aware, the current seat capacity of 65,200 seats was established vide the terms of the MoU between our respective Governments in 2014. In the past seven years not only has there been a very strong growth of passenger and freight between Dubai and India but also both our countries have been at the forefront of major developments in aviation – whether they be new state-of-the-art airports/terminals, new technology aircraft or other aviation-related technological advancements. With more than 1.4 million expatriate Indians in Dubai — a number that has grown steadily over the past decade years — as well as the ever-increasing trade and cultural exchanges between our two countries, we feel that the need for enhancing air connectivity between Dubai and India is stronger than ever before,” said Ahli.
