Gulf carriers to rule Indian skies
02:16PM Thu 27 Feb, 2014
NEW DELHI: India's huge aviation market is now officially the battleground for Gulf carriers, with Indian airlines forced to watch them walk away with a lion's share of the country's globetrotters. Bucking the code of conduct that will kick in the moment election dates are announced, the aviation ministry on Wednesday held bilateral talks with Dubai officials on Wednesday to give them more flying rights.
While talks were on till late night, top ministry sources said civil aviation minister Ajit Singh has allowed the Indian team to give Dubai a hike of 20% from the current 55,000 weekly seats - an additional 11,000 seats. This comes less than a year after Dubai's neighbour Abu Dhabi was allowed to enhance its capacity of 13,000 seats a week to almost 50,000 by 2016.
Justifying this liberal grant to Gulf carriers despite stiff opposition from Air India, private desi airlines and many political leaders, a top ministry source said: "International traffic to and from India is growing. Air India is not adding those many flights. The India-Dubai capacity is used by Dubai carriers and our airlines are also close to exhausting them. Let Etihad and Emirates fight for Indian air traffic now. The passengers will have the last laugh."
After this grant, Emirates is now expected to announce regular service of their Airbus A-380 to India at the Hyderabad air show early next month when the airline flies in the plane here for display. "The fight is now going to be between Jet-Etihad and Emirates. Abu Dhabi has got immigration pre-clearance for US. Dubai will get it next year. So, US-bound travellers will opt for these carriers to avoid serpentine immigration queues at US hubs. Travellers to other regions will be lured by low fares," said an official.