Etihad beats Gulf rivals to become fastest growing foreign airline in India

Etihad has emerged as the fastest growing international airline to India with over 55% capacity addition over last August.

Jet Airways remains number one airline serving foreign routes from India based on number of seats carried and passengers flown while Air India and Emirates rank second and third in both the categories.

Jet Airways is also the largest airline on foreign routes from India based on passenger flown and it carried 6.3 million passengers in FY 15.

According to a report on the anna.aero, a website which analyses airline route planning, Etihad is deploying over 29,971 seats one way weekly seats from India to Abu Dhabi in August, an addition of over 55% over same month last year.

Etihad has been able to introduce flights faster than other carriers courtsey the additional 37,000 weekly seat entitlement granted to airlines from Abu Dhabi in 2013.

Etihad Airways added a third daily flight from Mumbai to Abu Dhabi and a new daily service from Kolkata to Abu Dhabi in February. In addition, a third daily flight was added from New Delhi to Abu Dhabi in May.

The second and third fastest growing airlines on foreign routes are Air India Express and Thai Airways, according to anna.aero’s report. Air India Express has added flights to Muscat, Dubai, Doha and Kuwait from Mangalore and Kozhikode increasing its fleet utilisation.

Jet Airways is offering 88,000 seats on foreign routes in August a rise of 11% while Air India is offering over 72,000 seats per week. Emirates remains the largest foreign airline serving India with over 60,000 seats per week and Dubai-based airline has added capacity to India by over 9% over last August.

The only top airline reducing capacity in August is Singapore Airlines, according to the website report. Singapore Airlines’s seat capacity from India is lower by 2.1% compared because of a change in aircraft on Singapore- Kolkata route. The change of aircraft is being made in view of seasonal demand, Singapore Airlines spokesperson said.