|By Arabian Post Staff| Following objections raised by its national airline, India has rejected Dubai’s request for more landing rights to fly directly to under-served airports in the country, such as those in India’s North East.
“We have decided against allowing any such access to Dubai. The request has been rejected,” Indian media reported quoting a senior aviation ministry official.
Dubai’s DGCA has been seeking an increase in the flying-rights entitlements to India, especially to Guwahati or Dibrugarh in Assam as Flydubai was keen to expand its footprint in India. According to the reports, while India has rejected the specific request on direct flights to the Northeast, there is no decision yet on increasing Dubai’s bilateral flying rights. Carriers from India and Dubai have exhausted their bilateral quota of 65,000 seats each and Dubai has been trying to convince India to agree to an increase.
Dubai has also offered Indian carriers slots at its airports, a precondition by Indian authorities for agreeing on any increase, something the Emirate earlier rejected. Aviation ministry officials say that not all Indian carries favour an increase in bilateral entitlements with Dubai.
Air India has opposed any increase in entitlements with Dubai. It seems Jet Airways and IndiGo are also not very keen,” the official said. Emirate’s India sector entitlements have increased from 10,400 seats to 54,200 between 2005 and 2010. In February 2014, both sides increased the entitlement by another 11,000 seats each a week under a new agreement.
The Modi government has decided not to get into any new bilateral entitlements until Indian carriers used up 80 percent of their existing quotas.
Also published on Medium.
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