While Indian flights to the UAE have been banned till June 14, some stranded UAE residents are willing to spend a big sum of money on charter jet flights to be able to return to the UAE.
Mushtaque Anfar, a Dubai-based NRI businessman, needed to get back to his business so desperately that he spent a whopping AED277,000 or approximately PHP3.62 million for a charter flight back to the UAE.
The businessman, who owns perfume brand Oudh al Anfar, had gone to India to be with his mother and was stuck due to pandemic restrictions affecting flights from India to the UAE. Since he was left with no other choice to return to his second home, he decided to go the charter travel route and arranged with the Dubai aviation authorities to send a charter jet to fly him and his family back to Dubai.
Mushtaque Anfar highlighted his family photos on Instagram of the charter flight back to Dubai and thanked the Dubai authorities for enabling him to go back to Dubai via the charter flight, according to Assamese media.
Another Indian family too had earlier decided that money was no problem to ensure their return to UAE and paid over AED200,000 ($55,000) for a private jet flight.
P D Syamalan, managing director of Al Ras Group, flew with his family members and four employees from Kochi in Kerala, India to Dubai by paying over AED200,000 for a chartered flight.
Meanwhile, in a bid to prevent unfair airfare competition, the UAE General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) warned flight operators against pooling or selling per seat tickets. A Dubai flights agency described costs of India-UAE charter flights beginning at $40,000.
The deadly Covid-19 striking India in a second wave had resulted in air passengers being banned from returning to the UAE via India since April 25, and Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka have been added to this list.
