'Pity' Says Emirates CEO As India Denies Additional Seats To Middle East Air Carriers

Civil Aviation Secretary Rajiv Bansal said Middle East carriers have been asking for additional seats for the last several years.

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The recently concluded CAPA Summit in India has revealed future plans for the Indian aviation industry. Many industry leaders, from Air India, IndiGo, Vistara revealed their plans for the airlines. The Ministry of Civil Aviation also revealed details about the Indian aviation industry and reiterated their stand on not allocating additional seats to Middle East airlines for expansion of services between India and the Gulf countries. According to Civil Aviation Secretary Rajiv Bansal, all the Middle East carriers have been asking for additional seats for the last several years but "we have not been giving any additional seats to any Middle East carriers".

When asked whether the stance remains, Bansal said, "as of now, yes". Replying to the same, Emirates Airline President Sir Tim Clark said it was a "pity" with respect to bilateral flying rights not being enhanced. Emirates, which operates only wide-body A380s and B777s, flies to nine Indian cities and operates 167 weekly flights to India. Currently, the airline and its group entity flydubai have bilateral rights to operate around 66,000 seats weekly to India.

As reported by PTI, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Civil Aviation Minister of India also said that the country was not looking at increasing air traffic quotas with Gulf states and instead wanted Indian carriers to offer non-stop long haul flights on larger planes.

He said Air India's widebody plane order and IndiGo's twin-aisles to some destinations were signs that "transition" had begun. India has an open skies policy with countries that are beyond India's radius of 5,000 kilometres.

To a query on bilateral flying rights, Civil Aviation Secretary Rajiv Bansal said Vietnam and Indonesia are asking for more frequencies. "This is reflective of Indians' demand to visit these places," he added.

Clark said Emirates has sought 50,000 additional seats under the bilateral rights. He also said that opportunities are great in India. India is one of the fastest growing aviation markets in the world, reported PTI.