Flight bookings from the UK to Dubai have more than doubled for the last week of August, suggesting would-be travellers are hopeful of the UAE being moved to Britain’s ‘green list’ in the coming months.
Currently the UAE remains on the ‘red list’, which means Brits returning from Dubai must quarantine for 10 days in a hotel, at the cost of £1,750.
The decision is being reviewed in early June, according to the UK government.
According to Britain’s stringent traffic light system, the UAE must be placed on the ‘green list’ for UK travel to be quarantine-free.
Olivier Ponti (pictured below), VP Insights at ForwardKeys, which analyses comprehensive flight booking data, said: “It appears there is confidence in the market that the UAE will not continue to be a red list destination because bookings for the last week of August from the UK to Dubai have ramped up to 48.7 percent of 2019 levels.”
“There is little doubt that the UAE’s classification as a red list destination is a major deterrent to travel because the current state of flight bookings supports that view,” said Ponti. “Air tickets issued for summer – June 1 to August 31 – travel from the UK to Dubai are just 19.8 percent of 2019 levels.”
National booking company Flight Centre UK also reported its strongest day for booking enquiries so far this year on May 24, despite the UK government’s ongoing lack of clarity over its traffic light destination list.
Yvonne Hobden, head of product and retail marketing, told Travel Weekly: “Flight Centre UK reported its strongest day for holiday booking enquiries this year, despite the confusing messages from the government regarding travel to amber countries.”
Last week was Flight Centre’s busiest week with a 51 percent increase in total enquiries compared to March 1-7.
“Australia has been our most booked destination so far this month.
However, following closely behind is the US in second position. Understandably Portugal has seen a massive jump since the green list announcement, while Mexico, Thailand, Singapore and UAE have all seen a considerable increase in the past month.”
Only 12 countries were added to the UK’s list for quarantine-free travel from May 17, including Israel, Portugal, Iceland, Australia and Singapore.
John Grant (pictured below), partner at UK-based consultancy Midas Aviation, told Arabian Business this is “frustrating news” for the UAE, as the country has now languished on the red list since January 29.
The impact of the UK Government’s decision to restrict air travel to and from the UAE has seen the popular Dubai-Heathrow route lose its position as the world’s busiest internationally.
A full recovery of the Dubai-London Heathrow air route, which saw 190,365 seats booked during the first week of January 2020, could take up to three years, according to Grant.
Arabian Business has penned an open letter appealing to the UK government to place the UAE on the green list as a matter of urgency to help revive tourism and commerce links, given the Emirates has one of the highest vaccination rates in the world.
The letter has received support from leading British industry figures.
Separately, it has been reported that fully vaccinated tourists from the Gulf can return to Spain from June 7.
The move is a further loosening of the country’s Covid travel restrictions which on Monday saw holidaymakers from the UK and Japan welcomed back.
Tourists from the Gulf must have been inoculated twice with either an EMA or WHO-approved vaccine to be able to travel to Spain from June 7, according to media reports.
In 2019, prior to the pandemic, 121,000 travellers from the UAE and nearly 100,000 travellers from Saudi Arabia visited Spain.
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