Direction Dubai: Private jets were attacked to escape the health drama in India

Escape at all costs. This is what rich Indians are stuck with in their country. For those in Dubai, they are drowning out private jet operators with demands for commercial flights to return to the suspended Gulf Emirate. The plan is simple: leaveIndian hell By flying on private planes – it benefits by exempting circulation. Because there is chaos on earth. As the country languishes under the weight of the epidemic, sick people and their families are waiting in hospital parking lots to get beds.

There is no question that the rich Indians of Dubai will wait until the ban on commercial flights between India and the United Arab Emirates is lifted. About 300 weekly commercial flights between the two countries, one of the busiest airlines in the world, have been canceled. Among the concessionaires, an entrepreneur was established Dubai, Calling himself D. Patel, is busy pushing his brother’s wife and three children to Bangalore, South India. To bring them back, I will, ”he explains.

According to some estimates, D. Patel is one of 3.5 million Indians living and working in the Emirates. In a community made up of rich entrepreneurs and very poor workers, the sudden move has, in practice since April 25, surprised thousands of people in India for holidays, work or medical emergencies. As a result, many are now trapped by the outbreak of the corona virus infection. There are 18 million infections and more than 201,000 officially registered deaths. The daily death toll topped 3,000 for the first time since Wednesday.

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35 times more expensive

During his March 2020 imprisonment, D. Patel paid more than 8,000 euros to bring his parents and daughter-in-law to Dubai, or twenty times the price of a ticket before a health crisis. “I waited two months and finally rented a private jet,” he recalled. Such an escape is astronomical: a 13-seater jet from Mumbai to Dubai costs 29,000 to 31,000 euros, or 35 times the normal ticket price. Prices are still high from other areas. From Kochi, South India, the cost of the flight is about 41,000 euros Gulf NewsEnglish language newspaper published in Dubai

Taken by the storm, dozens of charter planes were carrying passengers from India to Dubai in the days leading up to the new ban. “There are 12 flights to Dubai tomorrow and each flight is fully booked,” an Air Charter Service India spokesman said on Friday. Economic Times. The same goes for Entral Aviation, another private jet supplier, which has been overwhelmed by hundreds of inquiries in recent days, the US website recalls. Business Insider.

Fly at any cost

Faced with an explosion of demand, operators rushed to get landing permits for private planes at the Emirates. “These aircraft must be approved by the Ministry of Public Civil Aviation (GCAA) and the Ministry of External Affairs,” Tabish Givensra, CEO of Entral Aviation Private Jet Charter in Mumbai, said. Emirati citizens, diplomats, official representatives and “commercial planes” are exempt from the travel ban if they value the ten-day isolation, the GCAA said.

It doesn’t matter if the price goes up, as long as there is room for them in the sky. Some Indians ignore the fee and are willing to escape anyway. Purushothaman Nair, a long-time resident of Dubai and stranded in the southern state of Kerala, says he is willing to “spend a large sum” to return to the Emirates. “My wife and I only came to India for ten days. We have to return to Dubai at all costs,” he says. Some fear that they will be infected by the virus, while some big jobs in the UAE “can no longer stay abroad”.

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Jameel Mohammed had not seen his youngest son for two years when he was on leave in March. He was initially happy with the meeting and is now stuck in Kerala. “If I can’t leave in a few weeks, my job will be there. My employer is already pressuring me and asking me to return to the Emirates via other countries,” said the civil servant with a modest income. “I can not spend as much money as I can. But if I have a choice between losing my job and borrowing, I will make a second choice with the option of repaying,” he says. Meanwhile, Indians have no choice but to face this serious epidemic.