Dubai airline chief calls for more flights to India, explains why airfares have increased

India’s aviation market has a huge potential and there is a need to increase flights between India and UAE to accommodate the growing demand from the UAE residents and Indian tourists.

The UAE airlines are looking to tap every opportunity that arises to launch new flights to India, which is set to become the world’s most populated country this year, Terming it a treasure for tourism, Ghaith Al Ghaith, CEO of Dubai-based carrier flydubai, also called for more flights between Dubai, UAE and India due to fast-growing demand.

He added that India can offer a huge potential if the government agrees to adopt an open-sky policy in place. “I think somewhere, somehow business to India is undermined by not having the kind of aggression (that is required). With more airlines coming up and buying new aircraft, hopefully, it will encourage decision-makers to open up the aviation sector,” he said.

To highlight the potential, he said, for example, if Delhi opens up the aviation sector, flydubai alone can fly to 40 destinations in India.

The UAE has reportedly asked New Delhi to increase the maximum number of seats between the two countries by 50,000 a week from about 65,000 a week. Some reports say that the United Arab Emirates has sought to increase the number of seats from 65,000 to 115,000 to India per week.

Taking into account the strong economic growth of India’s economy and aviation sector, Air India placed a huge order of 470 planes worth $80 billion from Airbus and Boeing to update its fleet and also meet the growing demand for domestic and international travel.

In April, Air India announced additional flights to Dubai from Delhi and Mumbai, as part of the network alignment process between Air India and Air India Express and accommodate increasing demand.

Tata-owned Air India ramped up the frequency to operate up to 10 times more daily flights between Delhi and Dubai (in both directions), including a new flight that starts on April 29, 2023. Between Mumbai and Dubai, Air India now operates up to 6 times more daily flights (in both directions). For most of the week, this means eight flights a day each way to Dubai from the two Indian cities.

As a result of a shortage of flights between the UAE and India, airfares jump substantially during the travel seasons, impacting 3.5 million non-resident Indians working and living in the Emirates.

Ghaith Al Ghaith said airfares have peaked and are likely to sustain at the current levels till summer, mainly due to supply and demand factor as both inbound and outbound travel is growing exponentially.

Emirates President Sir Tim Clark also asked the Indian government earlier that seats available between the two countries should also be increased.

TP Sudheesh, general manager of Deira Travels, also called on the authorities in India to increase flight frequency as it will help a number of blue-collar workers as well.

“Indian government should give approval either to foreign or Indian carriers to operate additional flights. And a lot of foreign carriers are ready to operate on India routes, therefore, this is the high time for the Indian government to proactively respond to meet demand,” he said.

He added that some carriers recently deployed smaller aircraft which has impacted travellers negatively in the form of higher airfares, especially towards the South Indian state of Kerala.

-waheedabbas@khaleejtimes.com

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