ai-based Emirates Airline, which is rapidly expanding operations in India, on Friday said it was open to strategic investment in an Indian carrier.
BANGALORE: Dubai-based Emirates Airline, which is rapidly expanding operations in India, on Friday said it was open to strategic investment in an Indian carrier.
“Emirates is always open to any such opportunities as and when they are provided. We will not shy away from it,” said Nabil Sultan, senior vice-president commercial operations (West Asia and Indian Ocean), Emirates. The state-owned carrier of UAE holds a 41.3% stake in Sri Lankan Airlines.
The airline currently has a code-sharing agreement with national flag carrier Air India and domestic airlines Jet Airways, Kingfisher Airlines and Indian Airlines to provide a wider network to its passenger. It offers close to 30,000 seats and 120 tonnes of cargo capacity per week from eight locations between India and Dubai.
“Indian air traffic is growing very fast. This year alone, we have added three destinations with 6,000 seats, and we plan to expand in this market very quickly. When we launched in Kolkata early this year, I was worried because of limited air traffic, but today we are logging over 70% load factor on the sector. Growth potential in India is phenomenal, provided there is capacity. We want to stimulate this latent potential by creating capacity,” said Sultan.
On Friday, Emirates announced the launch of eight-flights-a-week service to Bangalore from October 29. These flights will connect India’s IT capital to 13 gateways in the Middle East, 14 in Africa and 20 in Europe through 150, 82 and 211 weekly flights respectively.
The airline is offering promotional schemes ranging from economy fares of Rs 14,000 (return) to Dubai, Rs 38,400 to New York and Rs 20,000 to European cities. Its business and first class tickets to these overseas destinations are priced between Rs 27,000 and Rs 2.50 lakh.
Sultan said the airline is planning to next tap the market in Ahmedabad, Pune and Chandigarh. Over the last one year, the airline’s yields have been under pressure due to the entry of low cost carriers like Air Arabia, but the growth in volumes has, more or less, evened out the situation.
Sultan said the airline has discounted its fares by 20% on European routes and 5% on Indian routes over the last one year.
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