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Anil Kumar (name changed), a businessman from Ahmedabad had booked a flight from Ahmedabad to Houston, USA via Dubai on Thursday. While he reached Dubai safely, the deluge at its airport considerably delayed his connecting flight to Houston.
“We had to make a rescheduled booking on the same flight for Friday. The airline arranged hotel accommodation in Dubai due to the rough weather and flight delay. Thankfully, the flight on Friday is on schedule and the passenger safely departed,” said Virendra Shah, who runs a travel company in Ahmedabad.
Unprecedented torrential rain and thunderstorms battered Dubai earlier this week disrupting its bustling airport operations, and triggering a domino effect globally, including for travellers from Ahmedabad. Many from the city travel to Dubai for business. As many such travellers were compelled to reschedule their travel, booking tickets afresh is turning into an expensive affair, said Shah.
A round flight to Dubai from Ahmedabad typically costs between Rs 25,000 and Rs 30,000 per person. However, rescheduling this week’s flight tickets for the coming few days can mean shelling out fares as high as Rs 60,000 per person.
The impact of the airport shutdown and subsequent flight cancellations since April 16 has left leisure and business travellers from Ahmedabad in a state of frenzy.
Meanwhile, the Indian embassy in the UAE swiftly responded to the unfolding situation, issuing a crucial advisory urging passengers to reconsider non-essential travel plans until normal operations resume at the airport.
This has further led to increased requests for rescheduling travel bookings to Dubai for both business and leisure trips.
As heavy rain lashes the Gulf nation, the Indian Embassy in Dubai emphasised on Thursday that they are in constant touch with UAE authorities and airlines, facilitating connections between stranded Indian passengers and their families. They further stated that relief measures have been extended in association with Indian community organizations.
“The jacked-up airfares are purely an opportunistic move by the airlines. Their existing inventories have been nearly booked with limited buffer. Therefore, whoever ends up rescheduling their flights are paying heftier sums to modify their bookings. Many others who are in no hurry to travel have cancelled their flights claiming full refund,” said Ankit Bajaj, owner of a travel company in Ahmedabad. Travel industry sources also revealed that several parts of Dubai airport are inoperable, which has led airlines to cancel flights, sending airfares further skywards.
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