Indian carriers’ flights cancelled as Dubai airport curtails operations

August 4, 2016 3 Comments 293 Views

All Indian airlines operating to Dubai have cancelled their flights for today. This includes IndiGo, Spicejet, Jet Airways, Air India, and Air India Express. Jet Airways and Air India have just one of two flights to the Gulf city.

Dubai Airports authorities have curtailed operations to a single runway at DXB airport in the aftermath of the crash of Emirates flight EK521 yesterday. Priority is being given to the two home carriers Emirates airline, and FlyDubai. After that volume flights (number of passengers) of all airlines. If any capacity is left over, which it is not for now, narrow-body flights of foreign carriers will be accommodated. For now they have the option of diverting flights to Dubai World City airport or to the Emirate of Sharjah.

All Indian carriers operate narrow body Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 family aircraft to Dubai. Air India and Jet Airways have limited operations with wide-body aircraft like the Boeing 787 and 777. So while Emirates airline continues operate its flights between India and Dubai, almost all the flights of Indian carriers are grounded.

The second runway at Dubai international is expected to open later tonight but with limited operations. Hopefully that will ease the pressure a little. We will advise passengers to check with their respective airlines and re-confirm your flight operations.

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The strategy though justifiable, shows the undemocratic bias of the Dubai government in its decision making, at least when it comes to aviation. Personally, I applaud the clarity of priorities of the Dubai establishment from highest echelons of government on down. Emirates airline and FlyDubai are the national airlines of Dubai and are, and will continue to be, the beneficiaries of clear favouritism.

May be the Indian government should learn a lesson or two, and remember it the next time it pushes aside Air India or any other Indian carrier, or bends over backwards in bi-lateral negotiations, to accommodate the demands of any foreign carrier.

About Devesh Agarwal

A electronics and automotive product management, marketing and branding expert, he was awarded a silver medal at the Lockheed Martin innovation competition 2010. He is ranked 6th on Mashable's list of aviation pros on Twitter and in addition to Bangalore Aviation, he has contributed to leading publications like Aviation Week, Conde Nast Traveller India, The Economic Times, and The Mint (a Wall Street Journal content partner). He remains a frequent flier and shares the good, the bad, and the ugly about the Indian aviation industry without fear or favour.

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3 comments

  1. Xing Honey
    August 5, 2016 at 02:41

    AIC 983 BOM-DXB with B747 on 4th Aug

  2. Shanky
    August 7, 2016 at 22:45

    I do see any need to do “Emirates Bashing” here! I asked some operations persons in DXB . This seemed logical to use wide bodies to vacate 10-15000 ++ stranded passengers . Emirates does not use narrow bodies. FlyDubai – was also grounded in line with the vacating sequence. AI/Indigo/Jet/Spice had choice of SJH/DWC and some used this effectively. In this hot season, Emirates is mostly transiting passengers via DXB( very small % of tourists, stop over pax).So naturally EK( and their pax) was most affected and logically they had priority.
    Yes, the author , gradually moved to neutral statements at the end !!

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