flydubai, the Dubai-based low-cost airline, is willing to fly to any airport in India, its Chief Executive Officer, Ghaith Al Ghaith said on Monday.
“There are 45 Indian airports which are international airports and we can operate to any one. This is because the roots are already there. The relationship between UAE and India and the people of the two countries already exists and the synergy as far as economic relations are concerned is also there. Any route will work for us but it is not for us to decide, it is for the two Governments,” Ghaith said addressing a press conference here. flydubai currently operates to six Indian airports with 19 weekly frequencies from Dubai.
Asked whether the airline will look at increasing frequencies to the cities to which it already operates in or it will add more cities here, Sudhir Sreedharan, Vice-President, Commercial, said, “As we see an increase in seats we will do a combination of both in terms of ramping up existing frequencies and also looking at additional airports.”
India and Dubai exchanged an air services bilateral agreement in February which allows the designated airlines from the two sides to operate 11,000 more seats a week over a three-year period. In the first phase, airlines from India and Dubai can fly 5,500 additional seats every week.
“We will always look at any opportunity. But as far as our mandate from the shareholders is concerned, it is to focus on growing the airline in Dubai. We have no mandate on investing in other airlines,” Ghaith said.