Airfares Soar Amid 2nd Wave as the Rich Try to Get Away from India
Right before several countries restricted flights from India, there was a huge surge in airfares.
advertisement
As coronavirus infections soar in India, the super wealthy are reportedly staging an exodus.
While on one hand, we’re witnessing a shortage in oxygen and ICU beds in the second wave, on the other, airfares are soaring as the demand for private jets to Europe and the Middle East have dramatically risen.
Right before several countries restricted flights from India, there was a huge surge in airfares to London and Dubai and the Maldives and the desperation to get away from India gets reflected in how much the rich are willing to pay.
According to an AFP report, one-way commercial flights from Mumbai to Dubai cost as much as 80,000 rupees ($1,000), around 10 times the usual rate. For flights between Delhi to Dubai, the fair shot up 15 times higher.
A spokesperson for Enthral Aviation told AFP that the company has had to request for more aircrafts to meet the demand for flights to Dubai.
Ranjan Mehra, who’s the chief executive officer of Club One Air – a New Delhi-based private plane firm – told Bloomberg that a one-way flight from New Delhi to Dubai costs as much as 1.5 million rupees (USD 20,000).
The report also quoted Nishant Pitti, co-founder of Easy Trip Planners, India, as saying that following a surge in bookings for “immediate travel”, now there’s limited availability to locations such as London.
Currently, as the “double mutant” strain is feared to have caused the exponential surge in cases in the country, US, UK Canada, UAE, France, Singapore, Indonesia and few other countries have all banned flights from India for a limited period.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)