India-UAE route 8th in top 10 country pair list
Manju.V@timesgroup.com
Mumbai:09.09.2021
After a three-month absence, India-UAE is back in the top 10 list of country pairs, with airlines slated to fly around 12 lakh seats this month, making it the eighth busiest international route in September, show numbers released by OAG, a UK-based aviation data firm. What separates this eighth ranker from most of the country pairs in the top 10 listing, though, is the air fare — with the cheapest return fare on non-stop flights from cities such as Delhi, Mumbai to Dubai this weekend starting at Rs 65,000.
TOI compared 48-hour advance purchase fares on flights operating between the top 10 country pairs and found passengers flying India-UAE, Mexico-US and Spain-Italy this month would be paying the most for air tickets, especially those spending on 48-hour advance purchase tickets for travel this weekend.
On Wednesday, the cheapest return ticket on non-stop flights from Mumbai to Dubai for travel this weekend (September 10, return September 13) started at Rs 62,000, offered by Emirates, and for travel from Delhi it was Rs 70,000, on Fly-Dubai. Weekend flights to Dubai are in high demand as a 24-hour advance purchase flight cost a tad less — Rs 60,000 return fare on a non-stop flight from Mumbai to Dubai for travel on Thursday, that is. For cheaper options there were transit flights, like the Mumbai-Lucknow-Dubai Air India return flight, the fare for which began at Rs 50,000 for travel this weekend.
Pre-pandemic, Mumbai-Dubai return fare began at Rs 26,000 for a round trip. Then again, the number of seats on offer were high. For instance: In September 2019, airlines flew 32% more seats between India and UAE as compared to September 2021, shows OAG data.
The demand for flights to the UAE is particularly high this month with IPL 2021 to be held there from September 19. Dubai is also the most popular medium-haul international holiday destination out of India. With the UAE opening up for fully vaccinated passengers from India on August 30 after a four-month-long ban, air fares have jumped. UAE-India was the second busiest country pair globally from January to April, till the second Covid-19 wave disrupted the trend.
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