Chennai, June 23 (BPNS)
With the number of international flights from Chennai, Madurai, Tiruchi, and Coimbatore airports on the decline, the rates from these destinations to middle eastern countries like the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Kuwait is on a high.
The return fare from Chennai to Dubai is anywhere between Rs 40,000 to 1,00,000. Normally the rates ranged from Rs 15000 to Rs 25000.
The airports in the middle eastern countries like UAE and Qatar are popular destinations for travelers to European countries, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America.
Interestingly most of the flights are operated by international players while Air India and Indigo are the only Indian carriers who are operating to these middle eastern destinations now.
There are seven direct flights from Chennai to Dubai daily and of these only two are operated by the Indian carriers and the rest are international airline companies.
With the middle eastern airports being a connecting hub to other long-haul destinations like the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, only Air India has the aircraft to undertake long-distance travel.
Sources in Air India told IANS that the carrier does not have many large aircraft to undertake these hauls.
Sunil Chandran, a former officer with a reputed airline while speaking to BPNS said, “ The airline companies are behaving like a closed group and have dislodged the open sky policy of the government. The government had thought that the open sky policy will increase competition but instead, the airline companies joined together and jacked up the prices.”
He said that the lack of aircraft carriers to undertake long-distance flights from middle eastern countries is one of the main reasons for this.
Abdulla Rafeeq of Sky tours and travels while speaking to BPNS said, “The lack of aircraft has created an increase in prices of tickets to middle eastern countries and from there to international destinations. Unfortunately, if more aircraft are not pressed into service as a firefighting operation, the prices will go up.”
