Emirates to consolidate India ops, rules out expansion for now

New Delhi: Emirates, the biggest West Asian airline, plans to consolidate its India operations this year after an expansion spree during the preceding two-year downturn that saw weekly flights to the country increase by 87%.
The Dubai-based carrier increased flights from 98 weekly services in 2007 to 184 in 2009.
“As of now we are consolidating our expansion of last year. We have no plans to expand at the moment,” Orhan Abbas, the airline’s vice-president for India and Nepal, said on Tuesday.
Part of the reason for the consolidation is also hurdles the airline faces on aviation bilateral rights with India, under which it has exhausted all the approved seat capacity.
“We have approximately 54,000 seats per week and we are pretty much operating all the approvals that we have,” said Abbas, who briefed journalists in New Delhi.
The civil aviation ministry has tightened its hand in giving out further bilateral rights after following a liberal regime for the second half of the last decade.
01/06/10 Tarun Shukla/Live Mint

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Categories: Foreign Jun 2010