Destination Dubai: Jets in demand to escape India COVID19 horror
Fearing a prolonged flight ban between India and the Gulf state, they aim to use an exemption for private business planes that was in effect last year during the first wave of the global crisis.The latest suspension in flights that came into force Sunday has shut down some 300 commercial flights that operated weekly on one of the world's busiest air corridors.
T. Patel, a businessman living in Dubai, is working frantically to bring back his brother's wife and three children, currently stuck in Bangalore. "I waited for two months and finally hired a private jet for $42,000, the cost of which was shared by a few equally desperate residents," he said. But as demand soars, operators have been scrambling to clarify rules around private planes landing in the UAE.
"My wife and I came to India for just 10 days. We have to fly back to Dubai at any cost," he told AFP.