In order to give fillip to the country’s air services to Middle-East, India and UAE recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) following the two-day bilateral negotiation at Abu Dhabi, enhancing the weekly seat capacity to 50,000 on the sector.
Currently, all domestic carriers together are allowed to operate 13,300 seats per week on India-Abu Dhabi route besides a two per cent operational flexibility. Under the new agreement, the designated carriers of both sides will have existing entitlement of 13,330, plus two per cent flexibility, (total 13,600) seats per week with eleven points of call available to UAE, a Civil Aviation Ministry press release said.
After negotiations both sides have agreed to allocate an additional entitlement of 36,670 seats per week spread over a period of three years. For the current year, the weekly seat capacity will be 11,000. For the next year, the capacity will be 12,800 seats up to the winter schedule. The weekly seat capacity will be 12,870 seats up to the winter schedule of 2015, the Ministry said.
According to the government, the enhancement will allow the carriers of both the countries to plan their future operations. This will help enhance international connectivity for Indian passengers and also facilitate local and international route networking.
Both sides have also agreed to extend third country and domestic code share facilities. However, the Indian side has not agreed to the request of UAE for any additional point of call and removal of cap in terms seats/frequency from each point of call. The additional two per cent flexibility on total entitlement has been done away with.
The UAE have agreed to the Indian request of change of gauge facility and both sides have agreed to allow designated airlines of each side to have the option to change the aircraft in the territory of the other party. “The change of gauge facility will provide operational/commercial flexibility to Indian carriers to enable deploy equipment corresponding to market demand,” the release said.
The UAE had also urged India to allocate additional 40,000 seats per week and grant Goa, Pune, Amritsar and Lucknow as additional points of call, the release said, adding that India was looking at the negotiations in overall economic interest of India and government’s policy of liberalisation for attracting foreign investment in India, including the civil aviation sector.
India was also looking at the negotiations in overall economic interest of India and Government’s policy of liberalisation for attracting foreign investment in India, including the civil aviation sector. The Indian side had requested UAE to grant change of gauge facility at Abu Dhabi to Indian carriers in addition to ensuring full fifth freedom rights from UAE.
