The largest foreign airline in India, Emirates, has decided against investing in a domestic carrier as a means of gaining further market access because India has so far refused to grant Dubai's request for an additional 50,000 weekly seats. Emirates president Tim Clark, 73 said, “there is a jaundiced view to buying an airline in India in terms of being seen as a Trojan Horse way for access”.
The Indian economy is doing extremely well, and more Indians are travelling to Dubai for a variety of reasons, according to Clark, who was in Delhi to attend the CAPA Conference. “The answer (to not getting more bilaterals) is not to buy or get involved in another carrier (in India). The answer is to try and explain to the (Indian) government there is a need to increase air access. ”
Almost 65% of all flights of Indian carriers into the UAE go to Dubai, which is 344 flights per week. “Dubai is one of the, if not the, biggest external market for Indian markets. Indian carriers realise Dubai is a hugely profitable and potent market. If you don’t expand the capacity, the losers will be the people who want to go there, the Indian citizens. (Indian) carriers will lose $800-900 million worth of income every year by not taking that growth up to what we think it should be today,” he said.