The Indian aviation market is “large enough to accommodate all players profitably” and regardless of what competitors do, airlines remain focused on their strategies, leading Gulf carrier Emirates has announced Air India’s plans to ramp up its fleet and operations. Where is the beach? Emirates, which operates only wide-body A380s and B777s, flies to nine Indian cities and operates 167 weekly flights to the country. A senior Emirates official said Air India’s expansion could help airports improve their services, which would be a positive development for all other airlines, Indian customers as well as the aviation and travel industries.
“Air India flying to new international routes can also have a positive (impact) on Emirates. When a new route is operated by an airline, it can lead to an increase in traffic demand and increase the demand for the particular airline.” may not be able to complete.” ,
“As a result, potential customers will look at other carriers and this could have a positive impact,” said Mohammed Sirhan, Emirates’ vice president of India and Nepal, during a recent interaction.
Tata Group-owned Air India has placed orders for 470 new aircraft, including 70 wide-body planes, as the carrier embarks on overseas expansion plans that will help offer Indians more direct connectivity to international destinations. .
Responding to a question related to Air India and competition in the Indian market, Sirhan said that there is competition and no matter what the competitors do, “we are focusing on our strategies”.
He insisted that “the market is large enough to profitably accommodate all players”. Emirates is optimistic about the Indian market and wants more bilateral flights so that it can operate more flights. According to Sirhan, the Boeing 777 aircraft can carry up to 20 tonnes of cargo in the bellyhold while the Airbus A380 aircraft has 15 tonnes of cargo capacity.
“The cargo space is usually full on flights from India. We also have dedicated freighters with a capacity of 100 tonnes, scheduled to Ahmedabad and Mumbai to meet the seasonal demand for cargo lifting,” he added. went.” Gulf Airlines operates A380 aircraft to Mumbai and Bengaluru.
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Emirates, which currently has 263 aircraft in its fleet and flies to more than 140 destinations, has launched a retrofit program for 120 of its existing A380 and B777 aircraft. The program is expected to be completed in 2025. As part of the programme, the number of economy seats on both aircraft types will be reduced to introduce premium economy class seats.
“The A380 and B777 will have approximately 56 premium economy class seats, and the refurbishment of the aircraft is ongoing, and on some routes the aircraft already have premium economy class seats,” Sirhan said. Emirates’ A380 has 14 first, 76 business and approximately 429 economy class seats. The B777 has 8 first, 42 business and approximately 310 economy class seats.