{"id":113854,"date":"2021-04-27T15:31:02","date_gmt":"2021-04-27T22:31:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=113854"},"modified":"2021-04-27T15:31:02","modified_gmt":"2021-04-27T22:31:02","slug":"airfares-soar-and-private-jets-in-demand-as-rich-indians-flee-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/04\/27\/airfares-soar-and-private-jets-in-demand-as-rich-indians-flee-covid-19\/","title":{"rendered":"Airfares soar and private jets in demand as rich Indians flee Covid-19"},"content":{"rendered":"

Courtesy The Straits Times<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

MUMBAI (AFP) – Airfares soared and demand for private jets boomed Friday (April 23) as Indians who could afford it scrambled to escape a Covid-19 surge before flights to the United Arab Emirates shut down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All flights from the UAE to India – one of the world’s busiest air corridors – will be suspended from Sunday as coronavirus cases in the South Asian nation reach record levels and overwhelm hospitals<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Price comparison websites showed one-way commercial flights from Mumbai to Dubai on Friday and Saturday costing as much as 80,000 rupees (S$1,400), around 10 times the usual rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tickets for the New Delhi to Dubai route were going for more than 50,000 rupees, five times the normal level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No tickets were on offer from Sunday, when the 10-day flight suspension comes into force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For private jets, the amount of interest was “absolutely crazy”, a spokesman for charter company Air Charter Service India told AFP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We have 12 flights going to Dubai tomorrow and each flight is completely full,” the spokesman said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I’ve fielded almost 80 enquiries for flying to Dubai today alone,” said a spokesman for Enthral Aviation, another provider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We have requested more aircraft from abroad to meet the demand… It costs US$38,000 (S$50,000) to hire a 13-seater jet from Mumbai to Dubai, and US$31,000 to hire a six-seater aircraft,” he told AFP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“People are making groups and arranging to share our jets just to get a seat… We’ve had some queries for Thailand but mostly the demand is for Dubai.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About 300 commercial flights a week usually operate between the UAE and India, according to local media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The UAE is home to roughly 3.3 million Indians, who make up a third of the population – most of them in Dubai, one of the seven emirates that make up the federation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The UAE’s General Civil Aviation Authority said those coming from India through other countries must stay in that third destination for at least 14 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UAE nationals and passengers in private jets are exempt from that requirement. Cargo flights are not affected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MORE ON THIS TOPIC<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

India posts new world record of daily Covid-19 cases, airlifts cryogenic oxygen tanks from S’pore<\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

‘Double mutant’ Covid-19 strain raises concerns in India<\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

On Friday, a ban on arrivals to Britain from India<\/a> also came into force, except for British and Irish citizens or third-country nationals with residency rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One-way flights from Mumbai or Delhi to London on Friday were priced at between 100,000 and 150,000 rupees, at least double the usual rate when booking at short notice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seats on routes to the United States were still available but with prices substantially higher, in some cases almost double the normal fare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MORE ON THIS TOPIC<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Families allowed to bury dead in backyards as India’s Covid-19 surge overwhelms crematoriums<\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

‘The system is broken’: Covid-19 patients die on trolleys outside Delhi hospital amid second wave<\/a><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Courtesy The Straits Times MUMBAI (AFP) – Airfares soared and demand for private jets boomed Friday (April 23) as Indians who could afford it scrambled to escape a Covid-19 surge before flights to the United Arab Emirates shut down. All flights from the UAE to India – one of the world’s busiest air corridors – […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-113854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113854\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}