India, UAE hold talks to enhance bilateral air traffic rights

NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: India and UAE on Tuesday began negotiations to enhance bilateral air traffic rights to pave the way for airlines of the two sides to operate additional flights on the India-Abu Dhabi sector.

The talks in Abu Dhabi came days after Indian carriers sought an upward revision in seat capacity on the sector, with the existing level of 13,300 seats per week getting exhausted and the demand for flights estimated to grow exponentially over the next few years.

While officials remained tight-lipped on whether anything had been finalised, sources said the talks in Abu Dhabi are likely to continue tomorrow.

They also said that once some broad outline is finalised, the issue would be further discussed by Civil Aviation Ministry officials here and a decision taken on whether a new bilateral Air Services Agreement (ASA) was required or a MoU is to be arrived at. If a new ASA is required, then it would have to be approved by the Union Cabinet, they said.

As per the existing bilateral rights, all Indian carriers are jointly allowed to operate flights offering a total of 13,300 seats per week on the India-Abu Dhabi route, with two per cent operational flexibility.

Earlier sources had said that India and Abu Dhabi were likely to increase the seat capacity on the sector three-folds -- from 13,300 seats now to 41,000 till 2016 -- in a staggered manner.

While seat capacity allocation for the current fiscal would be 11,000 seats, the same for the next two fiscals -- FY 15 and FY-16, would go up by 14,000 and 16,000 seats respectively. However, there was no official word on this.

The Civil Aviation Ministry had last week held a meeting of all airlines where no-frill carriers sought expansion in their weekly schedules on the route. While IndiGo demanded over 5,000 more flights, SpiceJet sought 5,936 more and Air India Express 2,400 additional services.

Jet Airways on the other hand had sought a massive hike of over 40,000 seats, linking its expansion plans to Abu Dhabi ahead of its stake sale deal with the local airline Etihad Airways.