Emirates Airlines flies 60,000 seats from India, wants more

After having exhausted additional allocation of 6,000 seats per week last year, Gulf carrier Emirates is vying for more as it tried to make a case for it by coming out with a study on the economic impact of its Indian operations along with National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER). The joint study works on two scenarios; one of an increase of 4,500 seats per week and the second of an addition of 13,849 seats per week by phasing out its Airbus A330 and Boeing 777 classics and replacing them with B777-300ER.

The report showed that the economic gains accruing in the first case would be $47.5 million addition to Emirates's current contribution of $848.6 million to the GDP, taking it up to $896.1 million and creation 4,831 jobs. Emirates, today, employs 86,255 Indians for the 185 flights it operates to and from India every week. This would go up to 91,086 jobs. In the event of its seats going up by 13,849 per week, its contribution to GDP would jump by $139.2 million to $987.8 million from the current $848.6 million and offer employment to 14,150 more Indians. Besides impacting the national income and employment, more bilateral rights to Emirates would also positively impact government's foreign exchange earnings, which could climb from $1.7 billion per year at present to $1.8 billion per year for the first scenario, and to $2 billion per year for the second. Inbound tourists are projected to rise from 6.73 lakh per year to 7.11 lakh per years in case 4,500 seats are added and to 7.84 lakh per year with 13,849 more seats.

Adnan Kazim, divisional senior vice-president – strategic planning revenue optimisation and aero-political affairs, Emirates Airlines, said his airline would have a "role to play" in the government's "ambition" of reaching 85 million international passengers by 2020 and was positive of acquiring more bilateral rights from the government. "We have exhausted our bilateral rights (of 60,200 seats). There will always be talks between both governments (Indian and UAE) to see how they can look at it. Plus, the government has a huge ambition, when it comes to 85 million international passengers by 2020. So, we are looking at it positively because that (reaching 85 million overseas passengers by 2020) requires 67% increase for the next four years and emirates will have to play a role in it," said Kazim.

As per Airports Authority of India (AAI), international passenger traffic grew 9% in the last fiscal to 50.8 million. The Emirates-NCAER study says the growth forecast of the government cannot be achieved by domestic carriers alone. "This is achievable (85 million by 2020), but cannot be done by domestic airlines alone," it said.

The Gulf carrier is bullish on India, which is a major contributor to its revenues and passenger traffic. The foreign airline carried 53 lakh passengers on Emirates's Indian flights in the last fiscal and logged an average seat factor of 90%. Its 10-year average seat factor was 86%.