Air fares between India and Dubai have seen a massive surge since flights from India resumed last week, fuelled by the pent up demand from stranded Indians either working in the UAE or transiting through the popular hub to countries that allow entry for fully vaccinated passengers.
Indian and UAE carriers have resumed daily flights from multiple Indian cities after the UAE last week eased travel regulations for inbound and transit passengers from India and several Asian and African countries.
A one-way ticket to Dubai from cities such as Delhi, Mumbai and Kochi – among the most popular airports for outbound travel to the UAE and beyond is priced in the range of $470 to $612 for travel on August 14, which executives at travel services firms said is more than double than what they used to be in the pre-flight ban days.
“Both demand for travel and airfares are seeing a major surge since flights to the UAE have resumed after an almost three-and-half month ban. Among the airlines, the UAE carriers such as Emirates are seeing the maximum demand as they get transit passengers which form a sizable chunk of the current air traffic to Dubai,” Amit Udani, executive director at Fly Aerolink Travel, a leading Mumbai-based travel services agency, told Arabian Business.
“The actual costs for passengers to the UAE are much more than the airfare as they are required to get a rapid RT-PCR test just four hours prior to the departure of flights, besides a RT-PCR test conducted 72 hours before the journey,”.
A rapid RT-PCR at airports in Mumbai and Delhi costs approximately $54. Inbound passengers to the UAE are also required to take a RT-PCR test on arrival at the airports.
Under the eased travel regulations, the UAE has allowed entry to residency visa holders and certain other categories of travellers such as healthcare and education sector professionals, students and exhibitors and participants at Dubai Expo 2020.
UAE carriers such as Emirates are seeing the maximum demand as they get transit passengers which form a sizable chunk of the current air traffic to Dubai.
The UAE residency holders are required to get a pre-entry approval from the General Directorate of Residency and Foreign Affairs for travel to the country.
Senior officials at some of the Indian airlines said they are allowing only passengers who have a pre-entry approval from the UAE authorities, as there is still some confusion over the vaccines which are allowed by the Gulf country for travel.
“We have a schedule in place and passengers who have obtained the UAE government permissions are [only] travelling,” a senior official of Air India Express told Arabian Business.
As for the demand, the official said the airline is seeing only modest demand for outbound travel as it carries only UAE-bound passengers.
“Our PLF (passenger load factor) is not very high, it’s about 50 percent,” said the senior official at Air India Express, which operates the maximum number of flights from India to the UAE and other Gulf countries.
Air India Express has scheduled 25 flights to Dubai, 22 flights to Sharjah and nine flights to Abu Dhabi between August 10 and 15.
Vistara, the only full service Indian private carrier, has also scheduled four weekly flights to Dubai from Delhi and three weekly flights to Sharjah from Delhi and Mumbai.
The airline, however, did not comment on the PLF or booking trend “as it’s a bit early”.
Travel industry sources said besides the UAE, airfares have shot up for travel to countries like the UK which have recently opened up for Indians with the country being put in ‘amber’ from the earlier ‘red’ category.
For instance, a one-way ticket to London from Delhi for travel in the next few days is currently going for $1,747 to $2,512 – almost triple from the pre-flight ban days to the UK.
Flights between India and countries like the UAE and the UK are currently operated under special services under bilateral ‘air bubble’ arrangements, as the regular, scheduled commercial flight operations from and to India are currently banned until the end of August.
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