UAE flights: Airfares soar as stranded residents rush to book tickets

New Delhi - Travel agents attributed the overheated ticket prices to a surge in demand, which would take at least a couple of weeks to subside.

With more categories of stranded residents allowed to fly back to the UAE, airfares have shot up by as much 300 per cent.

Starting August 5, residents who have received both doses of a Covid-19 vaccine in the UAE; and vaccinated and unvaccinated health workers, teachers, humanitarian cases and those employed in federal and local government agencies can fly to the UAE from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Nigeria and Uganda.

No sooner did the UAE authorities announce the easing of travel restrictions than ticket prices shot up.

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Travel agents attributed the overheated ticket prices to a surge in demand, which would take at least a couple of weeks to subside.

“Usually, a Delhi-Dubai one-way ticket costs between Dh750 and Dh900 on economy class. However, the existing ticket prices have crossed Dh2,000 and are likely to go up further, as the demand peaks. The prices are equally high in other sectors as well,” said D.D. who runs a travel agency in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata.

Similarly, Rauf Khan, a Karachi-based travel agent, said that people from neigbourhoods like Lyari and Baldia town have been stuck since the Eid Al Fitr celebrations, when passenger entry was suspended.

“Covid-19 has roiled Pakistan’s economy like several other parts of the world. Many who have been stranded work as petty labourers. The ticket prices are more than twice their monthly income. But what options do they’ve but to take out a loan and buy a ticket in order to put food on the table for their family?,” he said.

Travel agents said they would refund the money of their clients who have booked a quarantine package.