Large carriers such as Emirates and Etihad have been making deeper inroads with the former launching an Airbus A380 flight to Mumbai and the latter adding new flights to India after picking up a stake in Jet Airways.
Indian airlines, too, get sizeable traffic to and from the Gulf countries.
Dubai sees the bulk of such traffic, with Dubai Airport Authorities claiming that India is the largest market served from Dubai, with an estimated traffic in 2013 of 8.3 million (growing at 13 per cent).
Recently, ‘flydubai’, a no-frills airlines threw its hat into the ring, as well, by launching its flight off Mumbai.
While the airline has been operating flights to Lucknow, Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi (the third-largest Indian market for Dubai) and Delhi (the second-largest), it would still be the smallest airline on the Mumbai route (the largest market) with five flights a week.
In contrast, Emirates flies five times a day, the most on a route that sees 15 daily flights. Even Indian low-cost carriers such as Indigo and SpiceJet have a higher market share. Regulatory restriction keeps it from increasing its frequency.
‘flydubai’ has its task cut out but its overriding pitch to flyers would be the onward journey it offers.
With Dubai being a hub to fly further west (mostly to the American continent), flydubai’s network which is well connected to Africa, Russia and East Europe is expected to come in handy in its sales pitch.
According to data from CAPA [Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation], Emirates captures 95 per cent of the onward-bound traffic from India and flydubai, has 4 per cent share, ahead of other players.
Unlike the Indian LCCs, the Dubai-based airline also sells its inventory on global distribution systems, giving access to a larger network of travel agents and has commercial agreements with other airlines which allow it to sell their flights tickets too.
Its business class offering, despite being an LCC, could sweeten the deal for business flyers.
It is planning a loyalty programme to reward frequent flyers with bonus miles and upgrades.
As with Emirates, flydubai is owned by the Dubai government (the management insists that the common ownership raises no interference).
It began operations in 2009 and launched its first flight to India in 2010, with a service to Lucknow.
Earlier this year, India and Dubai revised the air-services agreement, allowing 11,000 seats in addition to the existing 54,000 seats.
This enabled flydubai to add flights to Delhi, Thiruvanathapuram, Kochi, and now, Mumbai.
It has 25 weekly flights to seven destinations and plans to add four more daily services by next March (Emirates has 185 weekly flights, Etihad and Jet Airways, together, will have 217 weekly flights from 2015).
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