Lack of flights to UAE costs flyers dearly

Lack of flights to UAE costs flyers dearly

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:  4.8.2020

The UAE may have begun allowing visitors and transit travelers, but the lack of scheduled flights from Chennai forces the stranded to spend more on Vande Bharat flights.

The UAE is issuing visas for people of all nationalities for travel to Dubai and Abu Dhabi, a popular transit hub for those from Chennai, but many who could have used Dubai to fly to Europe and the US by flights of their choice are forced to depend on special flights.

Emirates and Etihad Air can fly to Chennai to pick up passengers with resident visas in the UAE but Emirates discontinued flights because aircraft had to land in Chennai empty because of restrictions. From August 6 to 15, Etihad will fly five times a week to Chennai.

Basheer Ahmed of Travel Agents Federation of India said many were waiting to come to Chennai and to travel to UAE. “Scheduled flights at least in limited frequency will help them. The rescue flights are expensive and get cancelled if the airline cannot send in the number of arriving passengers in advance.”

The UAE is opening up, but traders and business travellers are not able to benefit because of the risk of getting stranded there.