Emirates Airline will not invest in Indian domestic passenger carriers

Essa Sulaiman Ahmad, vice president, India and Nepal for Emirates said: “We at Emirates believe in growing our business organically. Adding that there are no plans to invest in any of the Indian passenger carriers by the Dubai-based airline.

Analyst Saj Ahmad commented: “The beating heart of Emirates' international expansion for the last 20 years or more has been based on organic expansion. As big a market as India claims to be, it is still highly immature, underdeveloped and nearly every Indian airline loses money and its little wonder that Emirates isn't at all interested in buying or investing here.”

Ahmad added: “Less than 3% of the Indian population use air travel, so while the potential is there to grow, the poor development of Indian aviation from airlines, airports and even retail means that its unattractive to pour money into. And with Emirates and sister airline flydubai upping capacity and frequency fright across India - and with far lower costs than their Indian airline rivals, Emirates has little need to spend money in a bad basket of eggs which is essentially what the Indian aviation market is today - and there's little sign of that changing, despite the newly installed Government there that wants to reinvent India's poor aviation image.”