Dubai: The airfare in the India-UAE sector is likely to go up yet again just ahead of the holiday season. The number of people arriving in the West Asian country for jobs and tourism purposes have increased of late after it had barred entry for people from abroad owing to COVID-19 restrictions since last year.
The air traffic to and from India and the UAE is currently high owing to the Dubai Expo and Dubai Shopping festival. Besides a large number of fliers are travelling either way as part of the impending Christmas vacations and New Year celebrations.
The number of passengers will increase further once schools are closed for Christmas and New Year.
The air services in the India-Gulf sector are still limited as India is yet to resume regular overseas flight operations since they were banned in March last year with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sources in the airlines sector point out that when the number of passengers increase and the air services are inadequate to meet the demand, the airfares are bound to increase.
A couple of days ago PTI reported that India is likely resume normal international flight operations "by the end of the year".
All international flights were grounded in March last year as India announced a major lockdown to combat COVID-19. However, flights on repatriation missions and those carrying essential goods, like medicines and food were allowed. Later several international passenger flights between a few countries commenced under an air-bubble arrangement.