Air fares on UAE-India routes are seeing significant declines following a slump in demand, airline industry officials have told Arabian Business.
While airfares from Dubai to many cities in India have seen a drop of up to 35 percent, the passenger load factor on planes operated by some Indian carriers has fallen even further from the beginning of this month.
“As against a one-way fare of about Rs14,000 ($191) on the UAE-India sector, currently the tickets on this sector are going for Rs9,000-11,000 ($123-$150) range,” a senior Air India Express official told Arabian Business.
“The drop in airfare is because of the fall in demand in this sector,” the airline official added.
Air India Express operates the maximum number of ‘bubble’ flights between India and UAE, with the airline scheduling about 230 monthly services to Dubai, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi, in the last two months.
Industry sources said other Indian carriers are also seeing a drop in passenger load factor on their flights from the UAE to many of the Indian cities since early this month, leading to reduced airfares.
Indian private carrier IndiGo did not comment on the issue while Arabian Business has also contacted Vistara and SpiceJet for their comments.
The tapering of demand on routes between the UAE and India is seen as a clear reflection of the drastic fall in the reverse migration of expat Indians from the Gulf region due to widespread job losses and the resultant expiry of visas.
“People are still undertaking only emergency or highly essential travels, and with the job situation witnessing faster improvement and getting stabilised in the UAE and some other Gulf countries, non-essential travels have come down of late,” a senior executive with Delhi-based Swan Travels said.
The passenger load factor (PLF) on in-bound Air India Express flights from the UAE, the official said, are currently in the range of 50-60 percent from the level of over 90 percent till end August.
The reverse migration had previously acted as a major boon for airlines from the two countries, which operated hundreds of repatriation flights under India’s Vande Bharat Mission (VBM) and chartered services, during the initial lockdown period.
Both Indian and the UAE airlines operate flights to and from India under a bilateral ‘air bubble’ arrangement, as scheduled international flight operations from India are still cancelled due to the Covid pandemic.
According to airline industry officials, the fall in passenger demand has also led to drastic curtailment of chartered flight operations on UAE-India routes.
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