Etihad is appealing for a relaxation of the current bilateral air treaty between India and the UAE as it seeks to expand.
The Abu Dhabi carrier has unveiled ambitious plans to extend its network into eight new Indian cities, but is hampered by the bilateral that limits services to 28 weekly flights from the UAE to India.
Etihad chief executive, James Hogan, has just spent two days in New Delhi, where he met Indian Minister for Civil Aviation, Praful Patel and senior government officials in a bid to break the deadlock, and against a background of increased air travel demand between the two countries. Eight cities identified by Etihad as ripe for new air services are: Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderarbad, Calicut, Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Jaipur and Kolkata (formerly Calcutta).
”Liberalisation of aviation markets is bringing multiple benefits for both consumers and regional economies alike and I hope that Etihad will be granted access to the emerging cities of India,” said Hogan. ”There is huge demand for air travel between the UAE and India - that desire is set to grow further as Abu Dhabi's ambitious property and infrastructure developments move ahead.”
This is backed up by figures from Etihad that show some 400,000 non-resident Indians now live in Abu Dhabi, while 655 Indian companies are also registered in the Emirates.
Etihad is operating at the limit of the bilateral, operating 28 weekly rotations from Abu Dhabi to Mumbai, New Delhi, Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum) and four to Kochi (Cochin). Kerala flights will increase to daily services from October.