Indigo, Air India Express resume flights to Dubai from Indian cities
Fares have crossed Dh2,000 on some routes as demand surges
Dubai: Indian airlines have resumed flights between India and the UAE after travel from the country was resumed for residents and passengers falling into some categories.
An Indigo flight from Kolkata, the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, landed in Dubai at 10:32 AM, according to flight tracking website Flightradar24.
Indigo is also seen operating Dubai-bound flights from Tiruchirapalli, Mumbai, Cochin (Kochi), and Lucknow later today.
An Air India Express flight from Cochin landed in Dubai at 10:09 AM and the state-run airline is expected to fly passengers into Dubai from Kozhikode and Mumbai later at night.
At least 7 Emirates flights have arrived in Dubai from cities such as Thiruvananthapuram, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, Bengaluru, Cochin and New Delhi. Emirates and Abu Dhabi’s Etihad airways have not announced a schedule yet for the coming weeks.
Fares soar
In the coming days, fares to travel from UAE to India are seen rising.
Travel agents had earlier told Gulf News that many flights are fully booked from August 7 – the original resumption date targeted by UAE’s airlines.
A flight from New Delhi to Dubai can cost between Dh800 to Dh1,040, while from Mumbai – India’s financial capital - fares are seen going up as much as Dh2,146.
A flight from the South Indian city of Kochi will also set passengers back by at least Dh1,034.
India-UAE fares, which generally fall within the range of Dh300 to Dh500, should return to that level as pent-up demand for travel starts to die out and more airlines add capacity on the route.
Travel resumption
UAE on Tuesday announced that fully-vaccinated residence visa holders from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Nigeria and Uganda can return to the country.
On Thursday, flights from India were the first ones to land in Dubai with stranded UAE residents.
All passengers with a valid UAE residence visa, who have been fully vaccinated in the UAE and hold an official vaccination certificate issued and approved by relevant authorities in the UAE are permitted to return to the UAE.