Indian carrier Jet Airways has this week launched a new link to Dubai from the port city of Mangalore as it seeks to increase its presence in the key market between India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The airline, which could this month enter into a long-term partnership with UAE national carrier Etihad Airways, will also introduce a second daily rotation on its Delhi - Dubai route later this month.
Jet Airways launched the new six times weekly Mangalore – Dubai route on January 3, 2013 and is serving this market using a Boeing 737-800. The carrier will compete directly with Air India Express which alongside its ten weekly rotations also provides a twice weekly link to Abu Dhabi from the Indian city.
“The new Mangalore - Dubai service will provide a much-needed link between the chief port city of Karnataka and Dubai, catering to the large number of Indians settled in the United Arab Emirates,” said Sudheer Raghavan, chief commercial officer, Jet Airways.
The introduction of this new service, the first for Jet Airways from a Tier II Indian destination to the Gulf, will further strengthen Jet Airways' presence in the region. The additional service from Mangalore will complement the airline’s existing Gulf operations to Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Dubai, Doha, Kuwait, Muscat and Sharjah, as well as Jeddah, Riyadh and Dammam from several cities in India.
Jet Airways already serves Dubai from Mumbai on a four times daily basis and from Delhi on a daily schedule. The latter route will be boosted from January 18, 2013 when a second daily rotation is introduced. This new flight, using a 737-800 with 16 Premiere Business Class and 138 Economy seats, will operate during daylight hours and will complement the current nighttime operation.
“We are happy to introduce a second service on the popular Delhi - Dubai route, which has seen a steady growth in traffic be it tourists or business travellers. This daytime flight would provide easy connectivity for guests, especially from north India, flying to and from the United Arab Emirates, and is expected to be equally popular with travelers,” said Sudheer Raghavan.
In the table below we highlight the growing air service capacity available between India and the UAE and look at the individual market share of airlines between the two countries over the past five years. The available seat capacity in this market has grown 35.1 per cent during this period from almost 4.8 million seats in 2008 to 6.4 million in 2012. Emirates Airline is the dominant carrier having boosted its capacity share from 27.2 per cent to 40.6 per cent in the five year period, although Air Arabia, Air India (following the incorporation of the Indian Airlines network) and Jet Airways have also notably strengthened their market position since 2008 despite the arrival of new entrants like flydubai, IndiGo and SpiceJet.
|
SCHEDULED AIR CAPACITY BETWEEN INDIA AND UNITED ARAB EMIRATES (non-stop departures) |
|||||||
|
Rank |
Airline |
Seat Capacity (2012) |
% Total 2012 |
% Total 2011 |
% Total 2010 |
% Total 2009 |
% Total 2008 |
|
1 |
Emirates Airline (EK) |
2,628,742 |
40.6 % |
42.7 % |
42.2 % |
38.6 % |
27.2 % |
|
2 |
Air India Express (IX) |
923,115 |
13.6 % |
14.0 % |
15.5 % |
15.3 % |
13.7 % |
|
3 |
Air Arabia (G9) |
882,576 |
14.3 % |
14.6 % |
14.5 % |
14.0 % |
8.6 % |
|
4 |
Air India (AI) |
663,618 |
10.3 % |
7.4 % |
3.9 % |
3.3 % |
4.1 % |
|
5 |
Jet Airways (9W) |
504,140 |
7.8 % |
8.2 % |
7.4 % |
5.8 % |
2.3 % |
|
6 |
Etihad Airways (EY) |
417,799 |
6.5 % |
6.6 % |
5.9 % |
5.1 % |
5.5 % |
|
7 |
IndiGo (6E) |
231,120 |
3.6 % |
0.6 % |
- |
- |
- |
|
8 |
flydubai (FZ) |
88,830 |
1.4 % |
0.9 % |
0.3 % |
0.3 % |
- |
|
9 |
SpiceJet (SG) |
55,566 |
0.9 % |
- |
- |
- |
- |
|
10 |
RAK Airways (RT) |
37,230 |
0.8 % |
0.8 % |
0.1 % |
0.2 % |
0.8 % |
|
TOTAL (Seat Capacity) |
6,467,615 |
6,013,036 |
6,139,140 |
5,849,990 |
4,788,389 |
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