India to Grant Qatar Airways More Seats

Thursday, 19th December 2013 at 16:57pm

The tiny but oil-rich emirate is asking the Indian government to grant its state-owned airline more seats entitlement between the two countries to meet demands, especially inbound travelers into India.

Currently, Qatar Airways has a quota of 24,800 seats per week from Doha to India but is almost used up already. The fast-growing airline is requesting to increase its seats entitlement of up to 72,600 slots each week.

According to the senior official from the Civil Aviation Ministry in a recent media interview, the Indian government will soon revise its bilateral air service agreement with Qatar.

The official admitted that they are still in the process of deciding how many seats per week they will grant to the airline. Though, he didn't offer more details as to the time frame of the approval of the new seats entitlement.

Qatar Airways accounted for 4% of the 45 million total international passenger traffic movement between Qatar and India, making it the fifth largest airline to carry international travelers between the two countries for the fiscal year 2012-13.

The increase in seats entitlement sought by Qatar Airways was primarily due to the surging demand in air travel from Qatar to the subcontinent. The entitlement assigned to Indian carriers, meanwhile, was only partly used with 10,000 of those were utilized.

Carriers from the Gulf region are poised to increase capacity between India and the Gulf countries, to tap the large Indian travel market.

It was reported a few months earlier that the UAE and India have signed an accord allowing airlines from both countries to quadruple their seat capacity in three years' time

As a result of the said bilateral agreement, airlines from both countries are permitted to increase their weekly seats up to 36,670 until 2015, from the current 13,600 seats per week.

By: .

Cheap Flight Search

Depart From:
Arrive At:
Departure Date:
Return Date:
Currency:
Passengers:

Sign up for the India Flights updates!

For all the latest news on India flights 'like' us now:

Skypicker banner