Dubai-based airline Emirates will close 32 of its 172 weekly flights on its India network (see table) between April 16 and May 30, 2019. The move comes in the wake of Dubai Airports announcing closure of its southern runway for upgrade resulting in a significant capacity reduction and reduced number of flights that would be operating from the Dubai International Airport as only a single runway will be used by the airlines during this period. For Indian travellers, for whom Dubai is among top three destinations abroad, the move will definitely mean lesser flight options impacting travel choices and also a possible increase in fares closer to the travel dates.
Under the bilateral agreement, Indian carriers have about 65,000-70,000 seats per week to Dubai — a significant number of seats per week. The Dubai-based carrier in a response to FE query said, “Emirates has a close working relationship with Dubai Airports and is aware of the planned upgrade works on the southern runway at DXB which will be carried out from April to May 2019. Emirates will be working closely with Dubai Airports and all stakeholders in preparation for the upgrading works, and we will adjust our operations accordingly for the period. We will have to adjust capacity due to the planned runway closure.
Details are being worked on and will be announced closer to date.” Travel trade experts see the closure of flights having an upward movement on the fares though it is too early to evaluate the actual impact . “The airport closure will mean every airline will have to reduce capacity. With this significant reduction in the capacity by Emirates, a major carrier on the route, we expect to see a notable increase in fares to Dubai in the quarter,” Balu Ramachandran, head, air & distribution, Cleartrip. Economy return fare from Delhi or Mumbai to Dubai for travel dates in April can be booked for Rs 15,000-27,000, depending on the choice of the airline but travel trade experts are not sticking their neck out to give an upward swing on this fare as yet.
This is the second upgrade of the runway undertaken by the Dubai Airports after the 2014 refurbishment of its northern runway in 2014. Since it’s a planned runway closure, it is understood that airlines have been given sufficient notice to reduce capacity for a curtailed flight schedule. Aloke Bajpai, CEO & co-founder, ixigo, a leading travel market place, said Emirates will ensure optimisation of its operations and minimise the impact on its customers but business travellers might find the flight schedule inconvenient due to low frequency.”
Indian carriers like IndiGo and SpiceJet, however, did not comment. Sharat Dhall, COO, B2C, Yatra.com, says that Dubai Airports is trying to minimise the impact of the refurbishment and is also in talks with Indian carriers to offer incentives to fly to another airport that is the Dubai World Centre throwing in free landing and parking along with free transfer to Dubai International Airport for connecting flights. “And for this reason it’s not likely that too many flights from Dubai to India will get impacted and we might not see a major upward movement in pricing.
But if Emirates does close 32 of its weekly flights, there might be an impact on the fares as this will be a significant capacity reduction by the major carrier,” he said. Another Dubai-based carrier , low-cost flydubai which has 30 weekly flights between India and Dubai is likely to get impacted as it too operates from Dubai International. Flydubai said it is evaluating the impact of the move.
Manisha Singhal