Fri. Mar 29th, 2024
Covid-19 UAESource: wallpapertag.com

When India is experiencing a daily surge of 3.5 lakh covid-19 cases, rich Indians plan to leave the country and book their foreign flights. Despite being charged with exorbitant fares, they are finding living abroad a better way to protect themselves.

The demand for Air Flights boomed when there were travel restrictions put by the countries on India. Airfares spiked, and demand for private jets rose as Indians which could afford it found escaping to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) a better option before they shut the doors for Indians in their countries. UAE has announced the travel ban of any flight from India coming after April 25, 2021.

All the flights from the UAE to India, which is considered as one of the world’s busiest air corridors, will be suspended as in Indian the virus has spread like wildfire and hospitals are overwhelmed.

On price comparison websites one can see the ‘one-way commercial flights’ from Mumbai to Dubai costing as much as 80,000 rupees ($1,000) on Friday and Saturday. It is almost 10 times what people usually pay.

On the New Delhi to Dubai route, tickets were costing more than 50,000 rupees, five times what a normal ticket costs.

This was all for Friday and Saturday, for Sunday, no tickets were available as the 10-day flight suspension has come into force.

For private jets, the amount payable as interest was “highly exorbitant and crazy”, a spokesman for charter company Air Charter Service India told AFP.

“We have 12 flights going to Dubai tomorrow and each flight is full,” the spokesman told.
“I’ve fielded almost 80 enquiries for flying to Dubai today alone,” said a spokesman for Enthral Aviation, another provider.

“We have requested more aircraft from abroad to meet the demand… It costs $38,000 to hire a 13-seater jet from Mumbai to Dubai and $31,000 to hire a six-seater aircraft,” he told AFP.

“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.”

According to the reports, around 300 commercial flights usually operate between the UAE and India in a week.

Around 3.3 million Indians live in Dubai and accounts for almost a third of the population. Most of them are settled in Dubai, one of the seven emirates that make up the federation.
The UAE’s General Civil Aviation Authority confirmed that all those travellers coming from India through other countries have to stay in that third destination for at least 14 days.
UAE nationals and passengers in private jets are exempted from that requirement. Cargo flights will not be affected.

A fleet of jets flew from Ahmedabad, Delhi and Mumbai to London Luton airport landed just 40 minutes before the travel ban was imposed. Some passengers who saw flying from India as last resort chartered the aircraft from Qatar, Germany, Malta and one belonged to a private owner, showing the high demands of rich Indians.

Britain also put a restriction on flights coming from India, except for British and Irish citizens or third-country nationals with residency rights. And, the ones who have reached the UK now must enter quarantine in a Government-approved hotel for 10 days.
One-way flights from Mumbai or Delhi to London on Friday were fluctuating at the price between 100,000 and 150,000 rupees, at least double of what a person usually rates when booking at short notice.
Seats on routes to the United States were available at higher prices and in some cases almost double the normal fare.

This debate puts a person in a debacle whether to stay inside doors or flee to other countries to seek shelter for the sake of safety from covid-19.

India’s recording the daily cases of the coronavirus disease (covid-19) over 3,00,000 for the consecutive last four days as the Union ministry of health and family welfare (MoHFW). It said on Sunday morning that 349,691 fresh cases were detected in the last 24 hours, taking the infection tally to 16,960,172 in total in India.

Where the daily cases in India are surmounting with heavy numbers, on the other hand, Switzerland has reported the first case of Covid-19 with an Indian mutant.

Switzerland’s Federal Office of Public Health (BAG) Informed in a tweet “The first case of the Indian variant of Covid-19 has been discovered in Switzerland.”

It was informed that the virus mutant has been found in a passenger who arrived in Switzerland after transiting through a European airport.

“The person changed flights in a European country before flying on to Switzerland,” spokesman Daniel Dauwalder told AFP in an email, adding that the sample was collected in March in the northern canton of Solothurn.

This news came after Belgian authorities informed that a group of 20 Indian nursing students has tested positive. They arrived from Paris.

Where the rich are planning to get a haven, the world is also grappling with the Indian mutant which is becoming a cause of concern for scientists. A new wave of infections has blanketed Indian and a part of the blame is put on the new “double mutant” variant, known as B.1.617.

The collapsed system has not been able to provide oxygen to its citizens, the flight companies are filling pockets with money, rich Indians flying abroad to escape the virus and yet among all these, it is the mentality of us coming out about how serious are we about the infections, helping our countrymen and trying to control the disaster. Sadly, it will again be the common man who will bear the brunt of the selfish nature of humans.

By Harshita Sharma

I bring to you updates from business, policy and economy spectrum.