Dubai wants to fly 50,000 more passengers from India per week; Indian airlines wonder why

In the recent past, Dubai has emerged as the favourite holiday destination for Indians looking for a quick escape from their hectic lives, which is why we see almost everyone from the upper middle class of the society either visiting or planning to visit Dubai. However, if you think that the number of Indians visiting Dubai has already reached its height, you would be amazed to know that Dubai isn’t yet tired of hosting Indians, which is why it is seeking to expand air traffic with India and adding 50,000 more seats per week to the current two-way capacity.

However, the proposal will surely be opposed by both local and foreign airlines as it would disproportionately benefit the emirate's flag carrier at the cost of others.

If the proposal is accepted, carriers from the two sides will be flying up to 1.13 lakh passengers every week, a number higher than the combined entitlements allowed under bilateral air traffic agreements with Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Sharjah and Oman.

Emirates, which is world's third largest carrier as per the number of passengers, would be the one to gain the most from this move. As if now, it operates 183 weekly India-Dubai flights, which is closer to total flights (over 300) by India's four international airlines - Air India, Jet Airways, IndiGo and SpiceJet.

IndiGo and SpiceJet fly point-to-point flights from India to Dubai, but are making losses on their international operations, because Indians travelling to far off destinations fly with Emirates while having a stop in Dubai, thus benefiting Emirates. Indian airlines fear that if the proposal is accepted and Emirates gets to fly more passengers, more travellers who could have otherwise flown in their flights would choose Emirates because of the ease of connectivity to global destinations.

"How much more does the government propose to give of our traffic to them," owner of one of the airlines cited above told ET. "It's crazy. I think the government will have a problem pushing this through," said the chief of another.

The proposal has come at a time when India and the UAE are coming closer in terms of international relations. Last week, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, visited India and met the honourable President and PM here.

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