'If one side makes more noise, it doesn't mean they are more right:' IndiGo CEO on Emirates' clamour for more bilaterals

NEW DELHI: As desi carriers prepare to increase their share in international air travel in and out of the country, India’s largest airline IndiGo has reacted sharply to Emirates’ long-standing demand for more flying rights for Dubai . “First of all, it’s called a bilateral agreement, right? That means two sides have to agree on something. If one side makes more and more noise, it doesn’t mean you’re more and more right. It’s not that if one side says, ‘now we do it’ — that’s not how it works,” IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers said at the IATA AGM Monday, without naming Emirates.

On Sunday, Emirates Airlines president Tim Clark had said: “We’ve been stuck with 65,000 seats in each direction (Dubai-India and vice-versa) for just over 11 years now (during which period the demand for travel has grown exponentially). Fifteen years ago, the population to Dubai was about 25 lakh. This is over 80 lakh. Dubai is one of the fastest growing cities in the world and 40% of the ethnic mix is of Indian origin. If you look at the way the Indian community has moved to and from Dubai over the last 10 or 11 years, you can see the scale of what is not happening by not giving seats to Emirates or wherever else it may be. The Indian govt has a policy at the moment of restricting capacity of foreign carriers into India, and they have their own reasons for that.”

Elbers did not name Emirates but said on Monday Indian carriers do not use their quota of flying rights to some country/ies while airlines of that region do so (not the case with Dubai). “There were a massive number of flights into India and no operations by Indian operators. So, for a government to say, ‘first let’s use the existing pool of traffic rights, and then look at new ones,’ I think that’s a completely fair and balanced approach,” he said, adding, “I think govt of India has stepped forward and made a couple of new air service agreements with different countries in different parts of the world.”

IATA DG General Willie Walsh said Monday: “As we see the expansion of Indian carriers into new markets, there will have to be a corresponding change to the approach for access.”

Air India CEO Campbell Wilson had last year said that giving more flying rights to countries like the UAE will be “pulling the rug out” from under Indian airlines, that have placed orders for hundreds of planes.