India-UAE hold bilateral talks
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India and the UAE yesterday began negotiation to enhance bilateral air traffic rights.
The negotiations will pave the way for airlines to operate additional flights on the India-Abu Dhabi sector. The talks in Abu Dhabi came days after Indian carriers sought an upward revision in seat capacity on the sector, with the existing level of 13,300 seats per week getting exhausted and the demand for flights estimated to grow exponentially over the next few years.
While officials remained tight-lipped on whether anything had been finalised, sources said the talks in Abu Dhabi are likely to continue tomorrow. “They also said that once some broad outline is finalised, the issue would be further discussed by the Civil Aviation Ministry officials here and a decision taken on whether a new bilateral Air Services Agreement (ASA) was required or a MoU is to be arrived at. If a new ASA is required, then it would have to be approved by the Union Cabinet,” the sources were quoted as saying by the Economic Times.
Earlier sources had said that India and Abu Dhabi were likely to increase the seat capacity on the sector three-folds — from 13,300 seats now to 41,000 till 2016 — in a staggered manner. The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) had last week held a meeting of all airlines where no-frill carriers sought expansion in their weekly schedules on the route. While IndiGo demanded over 5,000 more flights, SpiceJet sought 5,936 more and Air India Express sought 2,400 additional services.
Jet Airways on the other hand sought a massive hike of over 40,000 seats, linking its expansion plans to Abu Dhabi ahead of its stake sale deal with the local airline Etihad Airways.