Due to the fact that certain routes are not covered by a traffic rights agreement between India and Dubai, the Indian government has rejected permission for United Airlines to codeshare with Emirates on flights from India.
This interferes with the historic agreement that the two airlines signed last year that would have expanded their network to India. Carriers can grow their networks and help load their planes by working together to jointly market a route through code-share flights.
“United requested permission from the Indian government to display their code on our flights departing from India, but the government hasn’t approved it. So, notwithstanding how challenging it may be, that is the approach, said Tim Clark, president of Emirates.
The codeshare includes travel to 27 locations on the Emirates network, several of which are in India. Government officials stated that a third airline is not permitted to use the seats under the bilateral agreement between India and Dubai. United will be harmed by India’s attitude because it was obliged to reduce its direct flights from New Delhi as a result of Russia’s denial of its airspace to US carriers.
American airlines’ operational costs have increased dramatically as a result of the shutdown, and United has been forced to discontinue four routes, including those from San Francisco to New Delhi and Newark to Mumbai. According to United CEO Scott Kirby, the airline would have immediately increased capacity in India if Russian airspace opened up.
To encourage its carriers to use wide-body aircraft and offer direct access to North America and Europe, India has frozen any extension of flying rights to Middle Eastern nations. Given that the airline hasn’t been able to expand since 2015, Clark claimed that it has harmed the interests of both India and Emirates. Both Indian and UAE carriers are currently limited to 60,000 weekly tickets, and they are nearly at capacity.
When it comes to granting access to Emirates, India has historically been quite ambiguous. This approach is useless because India has a sizable non-resident Indian population and a high GDP growth rate. Clark remarked, pointing out that a protectionist approach doesn’t aid domestic airlines in expanding: “I don’t think this stance does anybody any good.
