The UAE and Indian airlines are flying high, with air traffic between the two countries posting a massive jump of 43 percent since September, fuelled by the Indian festive season and school break in the Gulf country.
Surprisingly, airfares between India and the UAE – one of the cash cow sectors for carriers from both countries – are seeing a softening trend with a 10 percent drop since the beginning of October, despite the travel demand spike, industry insiders said.
Airfares in the India-Gulf sector have been on an upsurge since the beginning of the year in the wake of easing of pandemic-induced travel restrictions leading to a massive demand spike for travel.
“The air traffic [on the UAE-India sector] in recent weeks was higher mainly because of travellers planning visits to friends and relatives during the India festive season, which is through the month of October,” Atish Thapa, business head-Middle East at Cleartrip, leading online travel agency (OTA) operating in the GCC and India, told Arabian Business.
“The festive season bookings alone were 20 percent above the trend line,” Thapa said.
“The travel dates for bookings [in the UAE-India sector] made in August and September were skewed towards October, and hence we presume that visiting friends and relatives is the prominent segment in recent weeks. The overall trend increase over September is likely in the range of 20-30 percent,” he said.
Senior executives at Indian air travel services firms also confirmed the spike in air traffic between India and the UAE in recent weeks.
“The long wait for interviews and approvals for the US, the UK and Schengen visas are also adding to the rush to travel to Dubai and other places in the Gulf, besides the festive season rush, as people are eager to travel post-pandemic,” Amit Udani, executive director at Fly Aerolink Travel, a Mumbai-based airline and travel services firm, told Arabian Business.
Thapa said the fare price spike during the current festive season was lower compared to pre-pandemic years, primarily owing to airlines adding more capacity to meet the demand during the season.
Industry executives said the airline seat supply snags in the India-GCC sector were ironed out to a large extent, with both Indian and the Gulf carriers bringing in additional capacity with the launch of new and additional flight frequencies, leading to lowering of airfares in the run up to October.
This has led to the normalisation of airfares from the recent highs.
Oil prices cooling off slightly in recent weeks have also contributed to stabilising of airfares, industry analysts said.
“Most new capacity has already come online or is close to it in the process, and we understand that airlines are starting to operate large jets – A380s – on the popular and busy routes such as Dubai to Delhi, Bombay, and Bangalore,” Thapa said.
Thapa said besides an increase in seat capacities, OTAs and banks offering great incentives to the travellers have also helped softening airfares in the India-Gulf sector.
The depressed airfares, however, are not expected to last for long as airlines are seeing a surge for year-end holiday season travel bookings from October onwards.
“We have started seeing bookings being made for the end of year travel, fares for which are already expensive,” the Cleartrip senior executive said.
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