With Indian aviation sector aiming to achieve a growth target of 85 million international passengers by 2020, Emirates Airline is eying to increase its share in the pie. The carrier recently released the results of an economic impact study done by National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) that measures Emirates’ contribution to the Indian economy. The effort is aimed at increasing the seat entitlements from India.
Speaking on the occasion, Essa Sulaiman Ahmad, Vice President – India and Nepal, Emirates Airline, said, “In the next five years, we are looking for 67 per cent growth in the number of passengers flying to and from India. We are looking for a greater chunk in the segment we operate in. We have exhausted the 60,200 seats per week entitlement, or flying rights, that was granted to us in 2014. Governments of both the countries are now in talks on increasing these entitlements.”
Emirates is the third largest international carrier serving India, operating 10.4 per cent of international capacity in the market, behind Air India and Jet Airways, each with a 12 per cent share of capacity. “Of the passengers who travelled on Emirates’ India services in 2014/15, 90 per cent travelled to/from Dubai or to/from points on Emirates’ global networks that are not currently served by Indian carriers,” he said.
In 2014/15, Emirates carried 5.3 million passengers on its Indian network, totaling 35 million passengers carried over the past 10 years. The 2014/15 data shows that around 37 per cent of Emirates’ India passengers travelled to/from the hubs of Delhi and Mumbai, and 63 per cent travelled to/from non-hub points. Emirates has emerged as one of the most preferred airlines in India with flights operating at an average load factor of 88 per cent during 2013–14. All ten destinations, except Kolkata and Ahmedabad, had load factors equal to or greater than 86 per cent, with Kochi and Hyderabad, indicating the highest level of load factors above 90 per cent.
This study stated that Emirates’ operations in India have contributed over US$848 million annually to the GDP in 2013-14, supporting over 86,000 Indian jobs and generating almost US$1.7 billion in foreign exchange earnings. The study forecasts that if Emirates were to operate an additional 4,500 weekly seats between India and Dubai, it would create 4,800 more jobs, forex earnings would rise to US$1.8 billion with the arrival of almost 40,000 more tourists a year. “If the bilateral arrangements (between Indian and the UAE) were expanded to allow an additional 13,849 seats per week, Emirates’ operations would support 100,405 jobs a year, bring in 784,042 tourists, contribute US$987.8 million towards GDP and boost forex earnings to US$2 billion per year,” the study concluded.
In February 2014, the aeronautical authorities of India and the UAE negotiated the first expansion of seat entitlements since 2008. As a result, Dubai-based carriers were awarded an additional 11,000 seats per week. The NCAER study models the economic value of potential future bilateral increases and forecasts that, if Emirates were to operate an additional 4,500 weekly seats between India and Dubai, an additional 4,800 jobs would be created, Foreign Exchange Earnings would rise to US$1.8 billion with the arrival of almost 40,000 more tourists a year.
