After almost every Indian airlines flying to Dubai raised concerns over slots, Dubai Airports on Thursday said allocation of slots to airlines is done by an independent body with fair process depending on availability.
“Indian airlines are treated at par with airlines from other countries in the allocation of flight slots as it is a fair process which applies equally to all airlines across the globe,” said Director of Corporate Communications and Business Development at Dubai Airports lorne Riley.
“The allocation of arrival and departure time slots is based on the available capacity. The slots are administered by an independent company Airport Coordination limited which is responsible for slot allocation at many other airports too,” he addd.
Explaining the process he said that airlines apply for slot while starting a flight service and their requests are granted based on availability.
“The runway capacity is scarce at the Dubai airport with two runways supporting 1,100 flights on a daily basis. So, we have a high demand on our airfield. We are a busy airport,” he said.
Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapati Raju in a letter in January this year to president of Dubai civil aviation authority Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, had raised the issue of ‘non-availability of commercially and operationally feasible slots’ for Indian carriers at Dubai airport with the Dubai authorities stressing that non-availability of slots is the reason behind non-utilisation of bilateral entitlements
India will soon hold talks with Dubai to increase the bilateral seat entitlements and is expected to raise the issue of poor slot allocation with them.
Dubai International (DXB) airport, which has around 1,100 flights daily, saw around 8.5 million passengers from India during the January-September period this year. In 2015, the number of such passengers stood at 10 million.
DXB saw little over 78 million passengers in 2015 and the number is expected to touch 83 million this year. In 2017, the airport is anticipated to see around 90 million passengers.