Emirates is not a threat to Air India: Tim Clark

India’s refusal to extend flying rights will hurt its own consumers and airlines, Emirates president Tim Clark said.
The Indian government has freezed any extension of flying rights to middle-east countries in order to encourage its carriers to fly wide body aircraft and provide direct connectivity to North America and Europe.

The last increment in flying rights to UAE came in 2013 when the UPA government agreed to increase it by four times from 13,330 seats to 50,000 seats per week. Their move came under scrutiny saying that it was aimed at helping Etihad which acquired 24% in Jet Airways.

“Dubai is one of the biggest if not the biggest international market for all Indian carriers including Air India. 65% of international flights operated by Indian carriers come to Dubai. If you don't expand capacity, the losers will be the Indian citizens and the carriers will lose 800 to $900 million worth of income every year,”

India’s apprehension comes from the fact that Emirates with its fleet of 262 wide body fleet will exploit the sixth freedom rights which allows it to fly Indian passengers to Europe and North America via Dubai. Air India which placed an order for 70 wide body aircraft is also vying for the same traffic looking to fly them directly from Delhi and Mumbai.

“Middle Eastern carriers have been asking for additional seats for several years but we are not thinking of giving any extra seats as of now,” civil aviation secretary Rajiv Bansal said at the CAPA India aviation Summit on Tuesday.

Clark said that there is no reason to see Emirates as a threat to Indian airlines. “The cake is big enough for everyone to have their slice.”

UAE has asked the Indian government to provide another 50,000 seats a week between the two countries as both Indian and UAE carriers were fully utilising their seat entitlements on the Dubai and Sharjah routes.

India has exchanged around 135,000 seats per week with UAE. Pre-Covid, Indian carriers were utilising around 100,000 seats per week while the UAE carriers were utilising around 115,000 seats per week.

Sources said that a decision on extending flying rights to UAE will be taken only at the Prime Minister's level due to its sensitivity.

Clark said that he sees India at an inflection point of growth and the privatisation of Air India has happened at the correct time for it to become a global carrier.

"India’s GDP growth of 7-8 % is outstripping just about every GDP CAGR in the world today. It’s an upbeat story and I don’t see such a buzz anywhere in South America, Europe or USA.” he said. “I never believed that Air India could come out of government control until I saw the name of Tatas. They are a successful global conglomerate and has the financial power to provide for what Air India needs. There is no reason now for them not to go out & conquer the world,” Clark said adding that Emirates has never considered Air India as a threat and is open to any cooperation with the airline.

He said Emirates disproportionate growth in share of India’s international traffic happened as Indian airlines were not able to satisfy the demand. According to DGCA, Emirates is the largest foreign airline for outbound and inbound international traffic to and from India.

In Q4 of FY 2022, Emirates was also the third-largest carrier for international traffic when all domestic carriers in India are taken into account. “We're not here to threaten, we're never here to cause worry, We are here to add value to the Indian economy, the citizens of India by providing a range of products, which other carriers have not been able to do,” he said.