Airfares skyrocket ahead of Eid Al Fitr

Dubai - With only a few days left for Eid Al Fitr, airline ticket prices have skyrocketed, in some cases even to 300 per cent or more. Even budget airlines have jacked up their fares.
Bookings show that the occupancy rate on outgoing flights from Dubai on the first day of Eid reached 100 per cent to many destinations, while they ranged from 90 to 100 per cent on incoming (arrivals) flights from Saudi and some GCC destinations.
Europe, however, has the biggest proportion of bookings on departure flights. Passengers heading to European countries are for tourism and entertainment purposes. Flights to Asian countries like Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore come after Europe; there is a surge in demand for travel to US and Australia, too. Sufian Mohammed, an employee of a travel and tourism agency said there are many destinations which see a high occupancy, with Emiratis booking for Europe and some Asian countries.
"Hike in demand for Dubai-bound flights from GCC destinations has prompted airline companies to increase the number of flights or replace planes with bigger ones," he said.
Sufian said the high demand during the season is, in fact, bridging the gap between prices of commercial and budget airlines. Booking tickets early is the best way to get tickets at affordable rates.
"Airline companies have ignored the steep fall in the fuel cost and kept their price lists as they are," said an angry Musabah Faisal, an Emirati who was looking to buy tickets for himself and his family.
Nadir Noaman from a travel and tourist agency said after instructions from authorities to pay the July salary in advance to the employees in local government departments, bookings for flights from the first day of Eid Al Fitr until August 5 have soared.
"The volume of bookings at present have reached unprecedented levels and flyers focus on Europe, specifically Germany, Britain, France, Austria and Spain", he said, adding that new destinations like Portugal are also becoming popular along with traditional ones like Turkey".
Lebanon and Jordan are also in high demand followed by Egypt, he added. Mustafa Abdullah, an Emirati said all his attempts to get tickets at reasonable price of air fares to my family members and myself went in vain.
"I have approached all the booking offices and visited online booking portal sites and the prices overstepped the budget I had laid down for travel of myself, my wife and my three children." Prices, he complained, went up three fold on commercial flights and two fold for economic flights.
Mustafa said he had booked online at a good price, but when he visited the company to pay in cash the next day, because he didn't like to paying by credit card, he was shocked to find that the prices had doubled. He, however, regrets that he didn't listen his friends who had asked him to book months in advance. Several expatriate passengers are now looking at travelling to closer destinations by land or to just remain at home.
Ayman Ismail, an expatriate said booking offices of airlines companies seemed like the foreign stock markets in terms of the rapid prices hike.
Ayman had the same experience as Mustafa Abdullah. While booking, the staff gave him a reasonable price, but when he went to pay the price has increased three-fold. The staff said that the seat had been designated to another passenger during the booking process. He urged the authorities concerned to look into the problem and find a solution.
salah@khaleejtimes.com