Early this week, Emirates announced the deployment of Premium Economy to Kolkata later this year. Kolkata will thus become the fourth destination in India to get Emirates Premium Economy product. Emirates has often been jokingly referred to as National Airline of India. Over the last few years, repeated attempts including public discussion to add seats to India have met with little success and multiple brickbats. Over the years, India’s percentage in total Emirates network has gone down significantly as the airline continued its growth across the world.
Over a period of time, especially post pandemic, Emirates has rejigged its pricing in a manner that its positioning is now more premium and it is chasing a certain type of passengers rather than catering to the masses.
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With 65,000 seats on offer each week between India and Dubai, a case where India has a separate agreement with Dubai and not UAE as a country, the market is stacked in favor of Emirates for lack of multiple airlines in Dubai, while the Indian side is fragmented with IndiGo leading the charge. IndiGo, too, would deploy its Business class product Stretch to Dubai, soon.
As of today, the UAE side is operating at an absolute maximum while the Indian side has some seats but those which cannot see an additional frequency but only some equipment changes.
The India – Dubai market in charts
Airline wise weekly seats : India – Dubai Market
Airport wise seats per week from India to Dubai
Equipment, Class of Service and more
There is a variety of fleet types and sub-types between India and Dubai, from A319 to A320neo and A321neo, the B737NG and MAX 8, B777s, A350s and the 787 Dreamliner, and the A380. Emirates is the only carrier which offers First class and Premium Economy between India and Dubai, while Business class offerings are on offer by Emirates, Fly Dubai and Air India, with IndiGo joining in soon.
India – Dubai connectivity (Image created with GcMap)
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While Dubai based carriers (Emirates, Fly Dubai) are restricted on where to fly by the points defined in the Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA), Indian carriers have no such restrictions. While Emirates relies largely on traffic to take it beyond Dubai, Indian carriers look for point to point traffic and thus adjust frequency and seats on the basis of where the traffic is available year round.
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