Indian aviation biz can accommodate all players profitably: Emirates

NEW DELHI: Indian aviation market is “large enough to accommodate all players profitably” and irrespective of what competitors do, the airline is focused on its strategies, leading Gulf carrier Emirates has said amid Air India ramping up its fleet and operations.

Emirates, which operates only wide-body A380s and B777s, flies to nine Indian cities and operates 167 weekly flights to the country.

A senior Emirates executive said the expansion of Air India might push airports to improve their services, which will be a positive development for all other airlines, Indian customers as well as the aviation and travel industries as a whole.

“Air India flying to new international routes might also have a positive (effect) on Emirates. When a new route is operated by an airline, then that could result in increased traffic demand and the particular airline might not be able to cater to the demand.

“As a result, the potential customers will look at other carriers and that can have a positive impact,” said Mohammed Sarhan, vice president - India & Nepal of Emirates.

Tata Group-owned Air India has placed orders for 470 new aircraft, including 70 wide-body planes, as the carrier embarks on overseas expansion plans that will also help provide more direct connectivity for Indians to international destinations.

To a query on Air India and competition in the Indian market, Sarhan asserted that “the market is large enough to accommodate all players profitably”.

Bullish on the Indian market, Emirates is keen to have more bilaterals so that it can operate more flights.

According to Sarhan, a Boeing 777 plane can carry up to 20 tonnes of cargo in the bellyhold while an Airbus A380 aircraft has 15 tonnes of cargo capacity.

“The cargo space is generally full on flights from India. We also have dedicated freighters, with a capacity of 100 tonnes, scheduled to Ahmedabad and Mumbai to meet seasonal demand for uplift of cargo,” he said.

The Gulf airline operates A380 planes to Mumbai and Bengaluru.

Emirates, which currently has 263 planes in its fleet and flies to more than 140 destinations, has embarked on a retrofit programme for 120 of its existing A380 and B777 planes. The programme is expected to be completed in 2025.

As part of the programme, the number of economy seats in both types of aircraft will be reduced to introduce premium economy class seats.