DUBAI: India’s flag carrier Air India has added flights to and from Dubai on its Delhi and Mumbai routes. This is part of a wider network alliance between Air India and Air India Express, even as the former moves to integrate all its affiliated airlines into its operations.
Air India will operate up to 10 daily flights between Delhi and Dubai this summer, including a new flight starting April 29, an airline spokesperson told Gulf News. Between Mumbai and Dubai, the airline will operate up to six flights per day. For most of the week, that means eight daily flights to Dubai from the two Indian cities.
Air India also deploys its twin-aisle Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner (equipped with 18 fully-flat business class seats and 238 economy class seats) on most of its daily flights to Dubai from Delhi and Mumbai. The rest are operated by Airbus A320/321 aircraft.
The airline said the new flight schedules to and from Dubai are spread throughout the day and customers can choose between morning, afternoon and evening flights.
route optimization
A month ago, the Tata-owned airline announced major changes to the way it serves its main segment on the Dubai-India route.
On March 22, the airline had said that Air India’s low-cost carrier, Air India Express, would mainly serve second-tier cities such as Goa, Indore, and Kozhikode, while Air India would focus on strengthening its presence in India. Metropolitan Mumbai and Delhi operations, while slowing down its operations to smaller airports and overlapping routes.
“This optimization of Air India’s flight schedule to Dubai is part of the ongoing network realignment between Air India and Air India,” the spokesperson said. This will achieve synergies through “dense deployment on more commercially viable routes and reduced frequency on overlapping routes”.
What does this mean for airfare?
UAE-India airfares have seen a sudden and surprising drop during the Eid holidays as new flights from Air India Express and Go Air added capacity on the route just in time. Current economy class round-trip fares average Dh695-Dh1,102 (for travel between May 11-18), depending on the industry. Fares spiked after June 16, before rising to Dh1,235-Dh2,612 during the peak summer holiday season.
If you’re traveling between May 11 and 18, airfares to super busy South India are generally higher than the rest of the country due to VFR (Visiting Friends and Family) demand, currently averaging AED 1,285 (Dubai to Cochin) to Dh2,085 a month ago. During the summer, however, Air India flights for the same sector go up to Dh2,215 (June 29 to July 25).
Travel agents say demand for UAE-India travel is expected to rise sharply this year as summer approaches.
