NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Kuwait’s Jazeera Airways urged India on Tuesday to increase a limit on air traffic between the two countries, echoing a request for more access to India from Dubai’s Emirates.
Chief Executive Rohit Ramachandran told the CAPA India Aviation Summit that the current weekly allowance of 12,000 was inadequate to reflect current economic trends.
Kuwait has asked for the cap to be raised to 28,000 seats and discussions are ongoing, Ramachandran told Reuters.
The comments come as Gulf airlines continue to press for more capacity and new access to secondary routes in the world’s fastest-growing aviation market just as India is expanding its presence in aviation with a record plane order by Air India.
The head of Emirates, Tim Clark, earlier voiced hopes that the governments of India and the United Arab Emirates would sort out the situation with regard to bilateral flying rights.
Ramachandran also said Jazeera Airways, which last year finalised an order for 28 A320neo-family jets, was interested in the largest Airbus single-aisle jet, the A321XLR.
(Reporting by Tim Hepher; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)