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Indian government has refused permission to United Airlines to codeshare with Emirates on routes from India as these are not covered by a traffic rights agreement between India and Dubai.
This disturbs the landmark arrangement signed between the two airlines last year which would have enhanced their network to India. Code share flights allow carriers to jointly market a route, allowing them to expand their network and help fill their planes.
” United approached the Indian government asking for permission to put their code on our flights from India but hasn’t been allowed by the government to do so. So as much as difficult it is, that’s the way, ” Emirates president Tim Clark told in response to a query from ET.
The codeshare covers 27 destinations on the Emirates’ network- a large portion of which are to India.
Government officials told ET that the bilateral arrangement between India and Dubai doesn’t allow a third airline to use the seats.
India’s stance will hurt United as it has been forced to cut its direct flights from New Delhi due to the closure of Russian airspace for US carriers.
The closure has significantly increased cost of operating the flights for American carriers and has forced United to cancel four routes including San Francisco to New Delhi and Newark to Mumbai routes.
United CEO Scott Kirby told ET that if the Russian airspace opened up, the airline would have instantly increased capacity on India.
India 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. Clark said that it has hurt interest of both Emirates and India as the airline hasn’t been able to grow since 2015. Currently both Indian and UAE carriers can fly 60,000 seats per week and has almost exhausted their quota.
” India has always been a bit mysterious when it comes to giving access to Emirates. This stance doesn’t help anybody as it is a country with high GDP growth and large non-resident Indian population who wants to travel. I don’t think this stance does anybody a favour, ” Clark said pointing out that a protectionist stance doesn’t help home airlines to grow.
” Look at the example of Turkey. They opened up, strengthened their own airline and now Istanbul is a big hub for global connections, ” Clark said.
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