Emirates Airlines, the national carrier for the United Arab Emirates, has approached New Delhi with an ambitious plan to more than double its seats in the India sector over the next five years. And in return? New Delhi hopes to get back as many dons as it can from Dubai.The dons-for-seats formula came up at a high-level meting in the Ministry of External Affairs along with the Emirates’ expansion plan—a copy of which is with The Sunday Express. As per this plan, the airline proposes to increase its seats to and from India, from the current 9,900 a week to 25,500. What emirates wants • An increase in weekly capacity entitlement from 9,900 seats in 2003 to 25,500 seats in 2007 • From 5 points served in India to nine. Every year, one city among Bangalore, Thiruvananthapuram, Ahmedabad and Kozhikode to be added. • Traffic rights beyond Hyderabad and Bangalore to Singapore and Bangkok The small fry dons who have come home • Muthappa Rai (a string of criminal cases in Bangalore), Aftab Ansari and Rajendra Anadkat (extortions, American Centre attack), Ejaz Pathan, Mustafa Ahmed Umardosa and Iqbal Shaikh Kaskar (Mumbai blasts) And the big fish who have not • Dawood Ibrahim, Memon brothers, Anees Ibrahim, Aftab Bhatki, Chota Shakeel Ever since Aftab Ansari—the prime accused in the attack on the American Center in Kolkata—was deported from Dubai, this dons-for-seats formula has had a strong support in the MEA. Not so much in the Ministry of Civil Aviation which discussed Emirates’ expansion plan at a meeting on April 22.It has now asked for feedback from Air India, Indian Airlines and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). For its part, it has told the MEA that accepting the Emirates offer would be bad news for Air India and I-A.This isn’t the first time the formula is being discussed. In fact, several key bureaucrats and politicians have admitted to The Sunday Express that such a trade-off happened twice earlier. Emirates was given block seats on the basis of informal discussions rather than a formal bilateral agreement—500 seats per week on May 14, 2002 and more recently on March 30, 2003 for the Hyderabad and Cochin sectors.Sources say then Minister Shahnawaz Hussain agreed to this after he received MEA’s written instructions that seats should be granted to ‘‘improve security relations’’ with the UAE.Says George Joseph, India’s Counsel General in Dubai: ‘‘The criminal-for-seats phenomenon existed in the beginning when the first guys came back.’’ About the future expansion plans of Emirates, Joseph said he was confident the airline ‘‘would get it.’’So despite turbulence from the Civil Aviation Ministry, the MEA is going ahead. Says a senior MEA official: ‘‘Some concessions will have to be given for creating an environment where these criminals are coming back. As far as the Emirates proposal, no action has been taken.’’The Sunday Express sent a questionnaire to Tony Tayeh, head of planning, at Emirates asking him about the don-for-seats formula. No comment was available.
