London: Emirates airline will fly the world’s largest passenger jet twice daily to New Delhi and Mumbai if approval is granted by the Indian government, President Tim Clark said in an interview in London on Friday.
Emirates currently flies the Airbus A380 daily to Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, however, the airline is restricted by government approved seating capacity in adding additional A380 services.
“We’re still trying to persuade the Indian government of the merits of letting us have more seats into the 10 points and more that we would like to have,” Clark told Gulf News following the announcement of a $9.2 billion Rolls-Royce engine order for 50 A380s.
“Of course we would like to get an A380 into Delhi, of course we would like to get a second [A]380 into Mumbai and a second into Delhi because the market will take them but that’s for the Indian government to judge the merits,” he added.
Emirates, reluctant to cut frequencies in favour of larger aircraft, have been publicly calling for additional capacity into India for some time. There is hope that last year’s election of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) could see those additional seats granted.
“It’s with the Indian government. Our request has been in place for quite a long time now. There has been a change in government since the original request was there [and] that request has not changed,” Clark said.
