Air ticket fares to many Indian cities have dropped drastically. Prices have fallen by nearly 60 per cent compared to the peak travel season in the last month, travel executives say. They also added that the rise in airfare the previous month was because of school summer vacations, Eid holidays, and summer tourism to the UAE.

“As the summer vacation is almost nearing the end, families who have gone on vacation are scheduled to return. Ticket prices have skyrocketed for tickets from India. These flights cannot return with empty seats, so this may be the reason for the drop in ticket prices from the UAE to India,” said Libin Varghese, director of sales and marketing, ROOH Travel and Tourism LLC.

“Summer tourism to the UAE also witnessed a huge demand this year, which may have been the reason for the increase in return ticket prices,” said Varghese.

On average, flights from the UAE to India currently cost between Dh400 and Dh700. Last month during peak summer travel, the tickets cost between Dh1200 and Dh1700.

Currently, according to Sky Scanner, the average ticket price from Dubai to Mumbai starts at Dh271 in August, from Dubai to New Delhi starts at Dh282, and from Dubai to Hyderabad, Kozhikode, and Chennai ranges from Dh320 to Dh460 for the month of August.

Raja Mir Wasim, manager of Galadari International Travel Services, said that the demand for travel to India has significantly reduced as many families are on vacation. “The families who are on summer vacation have not yet returned, and many of them do not book return tickets in advance,” said Wasim

“At the moment, people who are looking to travel to India are couples or bachelors for a quick vacation of a week or ten days,” he added.

India’s flag carrier, Air India, has launched a special Independence Day offer from all GCC stations for passengers travelling to India. Flight tickets from UAE to major Indian cities, including Delhi, Mumbai, and Chennai, will cost passengers as low as Dh330. Passengers can avail of the offer from August 8 and 21, 2022.

Travel executives based in India say that the ticket prices are over Rs25,000 (Dh1145) on average to UAE from many south Indian cities. “Last month, I booked a ticket from Dubai to Mangalore for Dh2,400, and now the ticket fare on the same flight is available for Dh450,” said Taha Siddique, Owner of Siddique Travels, based in coastal Karnataka.

Travel agents based in India are witnessing massive demand in outbound travel to UAE.

Siddique further added that scores of NRI’s are on vacation as compared to previous years. “People from Gulf countries who have come down for vacation are much higher as compared to earlier. Their travel was restricted for the last two years due to Covid restrictions. And this year, the number is considerably higher.”

Indian travel agents mentioned that people do not book round way tickets as they expect a cheaper fare nearing end of their vacation. “But as the demand shoots up, the airfare also does. We may expect a few additional flights in coming days to cater to the demand,” added Siddique.