Abu Dhabi: Airfares to popular destinations have seen a hike of at least 40 per cent during the Eid Al Adha holiday, according to Al Futtaim Travel.
Mickey Bhatia, general manager at Al Futtaim Travel, said that air tickets to India, where a lot of residents are travelling to be with their families, jumped from their average of Dh1,000 to Dh1,350 to Dh1,800 to Dh2,200 due to high demand.
Among the other destinations that saw a hike in prices are London, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Hong Kong, and China.
Turkey, Jordan drop
“I was actually quite surprised to see destinations like Istanbul and Jordan dropping their prices during the busy season. I think that in Turkey, they are starting to realise that the UAE is a large international market, so they’re trying to attract people from here,” Bhatia told Gulf News.
He added that destinations like Thailand and Singapore were among the most highly demanded for leisure trips, and saw an increase of around Dh400 in ticket prices.
However, further destinations such as North America did not see much demand during this holiday due to its geographical location.
“People don’t go to the US during Eid. They usually go in the summer holiday because the US is far away, but also it’s so large that visitors would need two weeks there to get a tour,” Bhatia said.
Meanwhile, Tarique Khatri, senior vice president of Business Development at travel portal, Cleartrip.ae,, said that prices of air travel are expected to remain high until mid-October.
“Typically during Eid, a lot of people go back to their home countries, so destinations like Beirut, Amman, and Egypt are very popular. Many people also take leisure trips to places like Kuala Lumpur, Phuket, and Maldives,” Khatri said.
