During the meeting H.E. Dr. Ahmed Albanna had scrupulous discussion for the air routes between the two countries and various Air Service matters between the UAE and India that are governed by the Air Service Agreement (ASA) between the two sovereign countries and the subsequent  four separate MOU’S have emerged from ASA incorporating the sectorial entitlements based on individual Emirate.

India currently has 4 Sectorial MOU’S with Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and Ras Al Khaimah. If a new ASA  goes through after acceptance from both the sides. It will give more room & flexibility to carriers in UAE and the India in their operations between the countries.

H.E. Dr. Albanna and H.E. Mr. Shina has proposed a meeting sometime soon between the General Civil Aviation Authority of the UAE and the Civil Aviation Authority of India to review  new agreement and policy for the bilateral air services agreement.

H.E. Dr. Ahmed Albanna also added that the India-UAE air routes are some of the most lucrative in the world due to large number of business relations between two countries. India’s bilateral air traffic  rights with UAE alone is higher than its combined rights  with other countries. Carriers from UAE can fly total of 134,441  seats a week,  Dubai (65,200), Abu Dhabi(50000), Sharjah(17841) and Ras Al Khaima(1400).

He also mentioned that under the existing, fragmented agreement, carriers of both India and Dubai have exhausted their bilateral seats capacities and it is the right time to renegotiate and reach to the new agreement. The new agreement will give room to deploy more seats and lead to more flights on the India-UAE sector, already the busiest International route out of India.

They also discussed that the commercial situation and the new civil aviation policy of India is conductive for holding bilateral discussions periodically to review, asses, analyse, resolve and look into the capacity enhancements.

He also said that UAE strongly believe that it is a responsibility of the government to ensure that any international agreement delivers equal opportunity and reciprocity of benefit to both the contracting parties. Keeping this in mind, UAE Government has made extra efforts to resume fresh negotiation for bilateral discussions under ASA.

H.E. Mr. Jayant Sinha assured the Ambassador that the quick action on the same will be taken soon.