India to ensure its airlines get slots in Dubai

NEW DELHI: India is going to link granting of slots to its airlines at constrained foreign airports to giving more flying rights or bilaterals to these countries. India will soon hold talks with Dubai for increasing bilaterals and the issue will come up in the deliberations, aviation secretary R N Choubey told TOI.

"Dubai is a slot constrained airport and our airlines have spoken about difficulties in getting slots for more flights there. This issue will be a part of the bilateral discussions we have with Dubai," said Choubey.

"We will first assess their demand (for more flying rights for Dubai). After that we will speak to the civil aviation authority of Dubai. The process will be completed in a way that is a winwin for our airlines and consumers," said Choubey.

Indian and Dubai carriers are allowed to fly 65,000 seats per week. While Emirates and Flydubai have fully utilized this 65,000 capacity, Indian carriers are utilizing 90%. Eighty per cent utilization of bilaterals is India's cut off point for initiating talks for additional flying rights. India will hike Dubai's flying rights by an amount that Indian carriers can also mount and not leading to a mismatch in utilization by Indian and Dubai carriers.

Emirates has this week written to aviation minister A G Raju, seeking enhancement of flying rights. Emirates has pointed out that Indian carriers added 38 weekly frequencies to Dubai this summer and now operate 118 weekly flights there with seat factors of over 80%. Emirates operates 176 weekly flights to nine Indian cities.