Air India is taking over Jet’s slots on this lucrative foreign route

MoCA has also promised over 5,000 seats on India-Qatar route, besides about 4,600 additional seats to and from London, to the national carrier

New Delhi: In order to fill the slots vacated by debt-ridden Jet Airways and meet peak summer travel demand, Air India has increased flight operations on the busy Delhi-Dubai, Mumbai-Dubai and Delhi-Mumbai sectors. India-Dubai route is one of the most lucrative routes for airlines because it sees high amounts of passenger traffic and the demand is always on the upper side because of those travelling for business or leisure.

Around half a dozen local and domestic carriers connect 20 Indian cities to Dubai.

New flights to be launched first week of June

The new flights would be launched in the first week of June. The routes will be serviced by B787 airplanes. Bookings on all these routes have opened.

"The flights to Dubai would be started utilising the additional overseas flying rights by the government recently," said an official.

The backdrop

The news comes just days after the Ministry of Civil Aviation gave preference to Air India and decided to allot about 5,700 weekly seats to the airline out of Jet Airways' unused quota on the lucrative India-Dubai route earlier this week. The ministry has also promised over 5,000 seats on India-Qatar route, besides about 4,600 additional seats to and from London, to the national carrier. Air India's market share in the domestic market is 13.1 percent currently. It carried 15.19 lakh passengers in the month of March this year.