Gulf Skies

- Akanksha Maker

The glorious saga of Gulf airlines is no news to the aviation geek. In February this year, Business Traveller India’s feature “The Gulf Between” reported on the rise of Middle East carriers with respect to South East Asian hubs. We also presented an overview of Indian airlines and their performance this August with “Fly High”. The article stressed on India’s vision of being the third largest aviation market by 2020. This bold forecast has invited airlines based out of the Middle East to consider India as a significant market. Their expansion plans entail new routes, upgradation of aircraft and a focussed marketing strategy.

This year, 185 million Indian passengers took to the air. Around 20 per cent went international. As per DGCA’s (Directorate General of Civil Aviation) January-March 2016 report, of the total passengers travelling out of India, around 33 per cent flew to the United Arab Emirates (this includes Dubai and Abu Dhabi), while about four per cent travelled to Qatar and about five per cent travelled to Oman.

The Gulf serves as the mid-point for Indian travellers flying to Europe and beyond. Besides that, there is also a large number of Indian population that resides and works in the Gulf.

Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad Airways are aptly titled MEB3 (Middle East big three) by aviation experts and an analysis by OAG, an air travel intelligence company, reveals that India is the fourth largest market for the trio this year.

Here’s an overview of “the big three” carriers out of the Middle East and their operations in India.

EMIRATES