Already a big player in India, flying to 10 cities, the UAE's flag carrier Emirates hopes the next bilateral pact between the two sides will remove air pockets to facilitate more capacity and routes to India to utilise the full potential.

The carrier, which operates as many as 185 flights a week to India, also hopes to fly the Airbus A380 to India, riding on the latent capacity for such gigantic aircraft and the interest the bird had evoked on a solo promotional run to Delhi two years ago.

"We are very keen to expand further into India. This is a major growth market for us, not just for flights into Dubai, but also beyond to any destination in Europe and beyond," said Tim Clark, president of Emirates.

"But all that depends on the Indian government. We hope as and when the bilateral pact is reviewed next, our request is accommodated," Clark told IANS on the margins of an event here marking direct Dubai-Dublin flights.

The review of the bilateral pact between the UAE and India is likely in June.

"A part of that strategy will be also to fly the A380 aircraft to India," said the senior executive of Emirates which already has a fleet of 20 A380s in service with an order for another 70 placed with Airbus Industries.

Source :news.in.msn.com