‘flydubai keen to invest in UDAN, greenfield airports in India’

Sudhir Sreedharan, flydubai’s Senior Vice-President-Commercial Operations (GCC, Africa and Indian Subcontinent), is optimistic about the potential for a slew of collaborative initiatives in India, despite the current investment challenges in the industry.

Speaking to BusinessLine at the Arabian Travel Market in Dubai recently, he said flydubai would love to invest in the low-cost greenfield airports that India is planning. It is also interested in participating in the UDAN regional connectivity programme.

“Unfortunately, we’re not able to participate in any of these initiatives,” he said. “Incredible India is a fantastic initiative, but there aren’t even enough seats for Indians to go back home during festivals. So, how does one bring tourists into the country to enjoy the festivities?” said Sreedharan.

He said the airline could work with the authorities to develop secondary or tertiary airports and help drive theme-based tourism. He added: “We are completely open to working with the Tourism Ministry and other authorities to develop any economic zone, if we have access to land there. When more flights land at an airport, more jobs are generated. ”

Health and wellness

“We’ve offered to pick up any theme the Indian authorities want us to develop. The health and spa industry, for instance. People from Dubai spend over two billion dirhams a year on health treatments in Thailand. Emiratis are allowed visas on arrival in India, but such experiences need to be promoted,” he said.

Data from the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation, especially over the last 14 months, show that the maximum number of visitors to Dubai are from India. Sreedharan said Indian carriers have a 90-95 per cent load factor. “There is no need to worry about opportunity loss if Indian skies are opened up further to flights from West Asia. Expanding the possibilities depends entirely on the policy stance of the Indian authorities.”

Many jobs coming up

Dubai is set to host the Expo 2020, expected to attract 25 million visitors. About 250,000 jobs will be created to set up infrastructure for this event. Sreedharan said that “it would be great if at least 10 per cent of those jobs went to the youth from India, especially those from the North-East, who are great in the hospitality industry. All this can only happen when there are enough number of flights to bring people in.”

Stressing that it was time that airports in India opened up to foreign airlines, he said that “an imaginative approach would be to make secondary airports open-sky till they hit four million passengers.” Once that happens, they can be kept out of open-sky consultations.

As of now, the bilaterals between Dubai and India are way below the potential. Sreedharan said, “In fact, the bilaterals are in India’s favour because, while carriers from Dubai (Emirates and flydubai) are restricted to just 11 airports in India, Indian carriers face no such curbs in Dubai. They can, and do, fly in from all 80 airports.”

Sreedharan said India could open up the skies to more flights for foreign carriers, at least for two-three weeks during festivals, to assess the demand and devise a policy. This would also lead to better utilisation of airports, such as Delhi, which is 25 per cent under-utliised, and also create a ripple effect of investments in hotels and other infrastructure.

Enhanced competition

“If there’s no protectionism with cars, refrigerators, TVs, or mobile phones, why are we so caught up with airlines? Once a policy is tabled, planners must ensure it attracts the participation of every player,” Sreedharan said.

Customer service can only be enhanced when there is a wide choice through healthy competition. With tougher competition, Indian carriers will have to up their game and invest in the latest machines to ensure they retain their customers.

With flydubai’s investment in flatbeds and the codeshare with Emirates, the airline has no choice but to pursue growth aggressively as that’s what the DNA of Dubai is all about — to invest, innovate and expand.

The writer was in Dubai at the invitation of flydubai.