At a time most of domestic and international carriers are rationalising routes for cutting costs, Dubai-based carrier Emirates is planning more flights to India for catering to rising demand from the business and tourism sector. The carrier is also awaiting clearances from the government to fly Airbus 380s to Delhi and Mumbai.
?We are ready to open more points to India. There is insufficient capacities out of India to meet the rising demand from business and middle class that wants to travel abroad,? Tim Clark, the president of Emirates, told FE.
At present, Emirates operates from 10 locations including Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Kochi and Kozhikode, among other routes. ?We have high seat factors in and out of many Indian points. As many of the carriers are reducing capacities such as European carrier like Lufthansa, We need to replace those capacities because at the end, the people of India both business and travel communities would suffer,? Clark said at Dublin after launch of the first daily Emirates flight between Dubai and Ireland last week.
Daily flight to Dublin is the third new route to be added to Emirates? route network this year following the launch of flights to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Buenos Aires, Argentina on January 3, 2012. ?Dublin is the 118th destinations for Emirates to be connected to Dubai which is expected to cater to tourists and expatriates communities from India, Australia and other countries,? Clark said after the launch of the flight.
On the possibility of acquiring Indian carriers because of financial difficulties faced by them, Clark ruled out the proposition. ?We are the merchant of the organic school with the exception of 40% stake we had bought in the Sri Lankan Airlines in 1998,? he said.
He said Emirates would continue to cater a million plus Indians in Dubai besides the rising business communities through providing more planes on the route. ?Many businessmen travel to Dubai even twice a week while there is a huge workforce from Kerala in the Gulf region leading to most of the flight to Kochi and Calicut run packed to the capacities. There is a healthy demand on the Indian routes,? Clark said.
(Travel for this story was sponsored by Emirates)