Dubai-based Emirates is seeking to increase the number of seats the airline offers from 54,200 seats a week into the country to over one lakh. Recently, Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways secured a three-fold increase in traffic rights for Abu Dhabi, piggybacking on its deal with Jet Airways. Highlighting its future strategy in India, Emirates President Tim Clark spoke to Business Line on a host of issues on the sidelines of the 69th annual general meeting of the IATA (International Air Transport Association) in Cape Town.
After the Jet-Etihad deal, will you be asking for more seats from India?
We asked for more seats four years ago. Irrespective of what happened with Jet and Etihad, our request predated theirs. With all our flights being full, we tried to bring the A-380. But the Indian Government didn’t allow it. We had to work within the seats allocated to us on the basis of frequencies. We have asked them for some more.
What would be your strategy to counter the competition after the Jet-Etihad deal?
The (aviation) market is like a big cake, which is growing all the time. What Etihad has done in its own way, successfully, is to get a piece of that cake. But at least three quarters of the cake is still there uneaten.
06/06/13 Nivedita Ganguly/Business Line
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After the Jet-Etihad deal, will you be asking for more seats from India?
We asked for more seats four years ago. Irrespective of what happened with Jet and Etihad, our request predated theirs. With all our flights being full, we tried to bring the A-380. But the Indian Government didn’t allow it. We had to work within the seats allocated to us on the basis of frequencies. We have asked them for some more.
What would be your strategy to counter the competition after the Jet-Etihad deal?
The (aviation) market is like a big cake, which is growing all the time. What Etihad has done in its own way, successfully, is to get a piece of that cake. But at least three quarters of the cake is still there uneaten.
06/06/13 Nivedita Ganguly/Business Line
