Not allowing new flying rights a disservice to India's economy: Tim Clark, Emirates president

In its first term, the Narendra Modi government did not agree to increase the number of international flights by foreign carriers. Dubai’s Emirates is unofficially referred to as India’s ‘national carrier’ because of the number of cities it connects in India.

With the Modi government taking guard for its second term, Emirates president Tim Clark told ET in Seoul that the government should allow more flights from Dubai as India needs connectivity. Excerpts…

Emirates has been constrained by its inability to increase the number of flights to the Indian market ever since Dubai-based carriers exhausted their quota of foreign flying rights. How is growth looking for Emirates’ India business?

There has been no increase in the allocation of seats between India and Dubai for the past five years. And in that time, the Indian carriers are running at 95% (seat capacity utilisation). And Dubai-India has been the most profitable route for Jet Airways, and it would be for IndiGo, Spicejet, Air India and Air India Express. Bless them! So, it makes a whole lot of sense for the Indian government to open up the opportunity. If Jet had had more access to Dubai, for instance, it would have alleviated the cash flow problem of the airline.

What kind of benefits do you see from the SpiceJet deal?
I am hoping that the deal with SpiceJet will bring us some good results. We have just started it, really, and there is nothing much to say as of now. The bilateral rights (lack of visibility on increasing it) between India and Dubai is the single biggest problem. Now, with the election process over and the Modi government back in power, I am hoping that the talks (between India and Dubai) would reopen and SpiceJet can get access beyond Dubai and we can get a bit over there. The fact is that we are full.

The Indian government may be trying to protect their carriers from competition from big international carriers. What’s wrong with that?
Why would you protect a market which is giving you huge returns? Yes, you can keep other carriers out, but India saw liberalisation in the ten years between 2004 and 2014 (Congress-led UPA government and the foreign flying rights awarded then are now being investigated by Indian agencies). India was on the move. Airlines were coming to India, things were happening and suddenly it was all a shut-down. It’s a great disservice to the economy of India and also the people of India who are travelling. Look at the people we take from the US and everywhere. Air India should have been there in places in the US, South America, South Africa and at all places, where we are going. The opportunity is there and it is for everybody. We expect things to pick up in India with a new term.

The Indian carriers have opposed any increase in bilateral rights to any hub country, including Dubai, on the grounds that carriers such as Emirates are taking away their traffic. How will you counter that concern?
What traffic are we taking away when they are flying full? That is a strange logic. They are not international. Air India is international but Air India had everything on a plate for 50 years but they could not take advantage of it. It’s a real pity! I used to fly AI as a kid in the 60s — on Constellations (an aircraft type) — and the first jet I ever flew on (Boeing 707) was an Air India jet out of Heathrow in 1960. This was an airline that was going somewhere during those days. What happened in the meantime with a population of 1.2 billion and a transforming economy? Air India should have been the size of Emirates today with that market base. As a matter of fact, the biggest beneficiaries of the increased capacity (foreign flying rights) have been the Indian carriers. Now, what’s stopping them from saying that India could have some more? I do not know, as it does not make any sense to me. A lot of things do not make sense there (India) and that is where we are.