Emirates to expand in India once bilateral pact gets inked

Dubai-based air carrier Emirates Airline today said it will be able to expand its network in India from the existing ten cities to more, once bilateral agreements on seating capacity are signed with the Indian government.

"We have ten points (cities) in India. We are trying to expand as much as we can. With the limited seat capacity we are very much restricted today to these ten points.

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"If the bilateral agreement goes through, we can gain seats and we can cover most of the points in India. Our objective is to cover as much as we can," Ahmed Khoory, senior vice president, commercial operations, West Asia and Indian Ocean, for Emirates told reporters on the sidelines of India Aviation-2016 being held here.

Replying to a query, he said currently the airlines is operating A380 aircraft to Mumbai only and once the bilateral agreement is signed, then Delhi and Hyderabad would also have the potential to operate such aircraft.

Referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's statement that India was expecting to receive 20 million tourists from across the globe, Khoory said he sees more potential for the Emirates in that context.

"Even 100,000 seats is not enough (keeping in view of the PM's statement)," he said.

Currently the premium carrier has 65,000 seating capacity from Dubai with 185 flights a week.