Emirates eyes major rise in passenger growth to India

Dubai-based international carrier Emirates has said that it expects the number of passengers using its flight services to and from India, to grow by 10 percent to 15 percent in this financial year, due to the improved condition of the Indian economy.

The increased trade between India and UAE as a result of the economic turnaround has led to a rise in the number of business passengers traveling between the two nations. Around 13 percent of India’s total exports are also directed to the UAE. A high ranking official for Emirates has said that it had managed to fill 80 to 85 percent of its seats on all of its flights operating between India and Dubai. He added that the airline could easily afford to add 15 to 20 percent passengers to its existing seat occupancy.

However, Emirates has also announced that it will not expand its flights services to India for the coming year as it cannot do so under the current bilateral agreement of air service between Dubai and India. But the company will earmark $2 million to build a special lounge for its passengers at newly-opened Terminal 3 of the New Delhi International Airport.

The lounge, which is expected to have a soft-opening by the end of August, will cater to Emirates’ business passengers. The airline had also started operating a special lounge within the Mumbai airport earlier this year in the month of February and plans to open similar lounges, each with an investment of $2 million, in many other airports across the country. The lounges are likely to be set up in airports which provide for seat occupancy levels of 75 percent or more on Emirates flights operating to or from that particular station.

Emirates has mentioned that the additional lounges will increase the staff requirement for the company and will allow them to recruit more personnel, which will increase job opportunities in the aviation sector that have recently started witnessing a growth in employment.

The current operations of Emirates in India comprise of 184 flights operating on a weekly basis from 10 destinations across the country. It is the largest foreign airline flying to Indian destinations and was the only carrier to increase its operations in the country during the period of economic downturn.

Emirates had also earned profits of around $964 million in addition to its total revenue of $11.8 billion in the 2009-10 fiscal. India and West Asia are also prime markets for the airline company which earns 13 percent of its overall revenue from the region. The company recently showed its operational commitment to India by conducting a one-time trial commercial flight of the largest aircraft in its fleet, the Airbus A380 superjumbo, to the Indira Gandhi International airport in New Delhi.