Travellers Can Still Book Flights for Under Dh1,500, but Travel Agents Expect Fares to Increase in October.
Dubai: UAE-based Indian residents planning to travel home for Dussehra and Diwali can still find relatively affordable flight tickets, although demand is beginning to increase ahead of the festive season. Travel agents expect fares to climb from mid-October as bookings gather pace.
Dussehra will be celebrated on October 20 this year, followed by Diwali on November 8. The festive period traditionally sees strong demand for flights from the UAE to India as expatriates travel home to spend the holidays with their families.
For journeys between October 19 and November 9, airfares from Dubai to several major Indian cities are currently available for less than Dh1,500, based on fares checked for the travel period.
Dubai-Mumbai fares start at around Dh1,072, while tickets to New Delhi are available from approximately Dh1,439. Travellers can find fares starting at about Dh1,042 to Kochi, Dh945 to Bengaluru and Dh1,017 to Hyderabad.
However, passengers travelling to some of India’s tier-two cities may have to pay significantly more, largely due to fewer direct flights and lower service frequencies on these routes.
For travellers heading to tier-two cities, fares can be considerably higher. A Dubai-Varanasi ticket, for instance, is priced at around Dh2,303, while fares from Dubai to Jaipur are approximately Dh1,426 for the period checked.
Sharjah flight fares to India
Passengers departing from Sharjah can also find relatively affordable options, particularly on Air Arabia.
Fares from Sharjah to Mumbai are currently around Dh1,072, while tickets to Bengaluru start at approximately Dh945. Sharjah-Chennai fares are available from about Dh1,205, while flights to Kochi start at roughly Dh1,042.
Travellers flying from Sharjah to Tiruchirapalli can expect fares of around Dh1,370 during the period checked.
Airfares remain subject to change depending on seat availability, travel dates and when tickets are booked. Prices to major Indian destinations generally tend to increase as the festive travel season draws closer.
Festive season bookings remain healthy
Air India said bookings for the upcoming festive and winter travel season were showing healthy demand, with some last-minute booking activity already emerging.
PP Singh, regional manager for Gulf, Middle East and Africa at Air India, said bookings were progressing well and the airline remained positive about demand during the winter season.
He added that Air India was already seeing last-minute bookings and expected passenger numbers to strengthen further during October and November.
Air India’s winter schedule runs from October 26 until the end of March. During this period, Air India and Air India Express are scheduled to operate a combined 272 flights per week between India and the UAE, subject to frequencies on individual routes.
Of these, Air India will operate 54 weekly services, with Air India Express accounting for the remaining flights, Singh said.
He also said Air India had returned to operating at 100 per cent of its permitted capacity under the India-UAE bilateral air services agreement following the outbreak of the US-Iran war in February.
Indian expatriate travel demand remains strong
Travel agents said the festive season continues to be an important travel period for Indian expatriates, although booking patterns can vary depending on whether passengers are travelling from or returning to the UAE.
Sapna Aidasani, marketing director and head of marketing at Pluto Travels, said travel demand among Indian expatriates in Dubai remained strong, with no significant change in their usual travel patterns.
She said enquiries for Dussehra and Diwali group travel were beginning to increase, while interest in Christmas and New Year travel was already strong.
Aidasani added that fares remained relatively affordable for now, but last-minute bookings were likely to increase and ticket prices could begin rising from mid-October.
Travellers connected to markets such as Gujarat and Mumbai are expected to contribute to festive-season demand, she said. The wedding season following Diwali is also likely to generate additional India-bound travel.
India-to-UAE travel demand
The festive season may not necessarily lead to a sharp increase in travel from India to the UAE, as schools and universities in the Emirates generally do not observe a holiday for Diwali.
Mehar Sawlani, director of sales at Richmond Gulf Tourism, said demand from Indian travellers remained healthy as Dubai moved into its peak tourism season.
She said Indians continued to show a willingness to travel to the UAE, with the market gradually recovering from the uncertainty seen earlier in the year. However, demand had yet to return to levels recorded before the war.
Sawlani said travellers had become more confident about visiting the UAE, although some uncertainty remained. She expects inbound travel from India to strengthen further during the winter tourism season.
Are airfares expected to rise?
For UAE residents planning to travel to India for Dussehra or Diwali, travel agents say there is still an opportunity to secure relatively affordable fares before the usual last-minute increases.
Sapna Aidasani said many passengers were likely to leave their bookings until closer to their departure dates. However, she cautioned that fares could begin increasing from mid-October as demand rises and seat availability becomes tighter.
With Indian airlines restoring capacity on UAE routes and carriers expanding connectivity, passengers now have more travel options than they did during the disruptions earlier this year.
However, fares can still rise significantly on high-demand routes, particularly to Indian cities served by fewer daily flights, as available seats fill up closer to the festive period.
