Dubai: More airlines are getting ready to fly in and out of India to the UAE - flydubai, Air India Express, Spicejet and Go Air will resume flights connecting Indian cities to Dubai starting June 23, as per online booking websites.
This comes after Dubai said it would allow holders of UAE residency visas stuck outside the country to return from certain nations. With regard to travel from India, only passengers with a valid residence visa who have received two doses of a UAE-approved vaccine are allowed to travel to Dubai. They should also present a negative test certificate from a PCR test taken 48 hours before departure.
Emirates airline - which plans to resume flights connecting India, South Africa and Nigeria to Dubai - had earlier said it welcomed the latest protocols and measures announced by Dubai's Supreme Committee of Crisis and Disaster Management to allow the safe resumption of passenger travel. "We look forward to facilitating travel from these countries and supporting various travellers’ categories," said an Emirates spokesperson earlier.
What do fares look like?
Airline passengers in India are hurrying to lock their tickets to travel to Dubai. An Emirates airline flight from New Delhi to Dubai will cost Dh921. For the same route, Air India Express is charging Dh415.
Flights from Mumbai, India’s financial capital, to Dubai are on the lower end with fares from just Dh394. A flight from Kochi will cost travellers the most with fares as high as Dh1,503 in some cases.
Partial lift of ban
Inbound flights from India were suspended in late April after a surge in COVID-19 cases. As a result, ticket bookings to travel from UAE to the Indian subcontinent plunged by 70 per cent, according to International Air Transport Association (IATA). India is UAE’s largest source market and represents about 30 per cent of its passenger traffic.
“India to the UAE is a crucial and important market for all of us who are in aviation,” said Adel Ali, Air Arabia’s CEO in an interview with Gulf News last week. India and the Subcontinent are “significantly important for all the airlines in the region - and for all Indian carriers.”
