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Dubai: Heading to the UK for the upcoming Christmas and New Year holidays?
Emirati Britons and other expats planning to travel to the UK between December 16 and 31 fear their travel plans could be canceled if air ticket caps or cancellations between those destinations are imposed. Their concerns were amplified after British Airways and Virgin Atlantic restricted ticket sales at Heathrow due to Border Force strikes planned for the winter holidays. Maxmillian Buerger, managing director of market intelligence platform and consultancy AFM.aero, told Gulf News: “Staff shortages will certainly affect the operational capacity of many airports around the world. Strikes will exacerbate these staff shortages.”
However, travel agents operating in the industry say those who have already booked their tickets in advance with Emirates have nothing to worry about. Several travel agencies, Gulf News, said there were no circulars or announcements from Emirates or Etihad Airways, the two most prominent airlines in the UAE, advising them of the cap on ticket sales or flight cancellations.
Gulf News has contacted the airline; a response is awaited. Additionally, British Airways has not provided local travel agents with clarity on the status of tickets booked during this period, the travel agent said. “British Airways has not issued any official word on ticket sales caps. It is unclear whether travelers who have already bought tickets will also have to rearrange their travel plans,” said a travel agency.
“Middle East airlines probably won’t be affected”
Raheesh Babu, chief operating officer of online travel platform Musafair.com, doesn’t expect Middle Eastern airlines to be affected too much by the strike. “We do not have any seating restrictions for London and we have not received any notification from local airlines. All operations will proceed as scheduled,” he said.
While British Airways and Virgin Atlantic have announced restrictions on ticket sales, flights from Dubai to the UK have been increased for the upcoming holiday season, which begins on December 16.
Earlier this month, Emirates launched a third daily A380 flight to London Gatwick, bringing the total number of daily double-decker flights between Dubai and Gatwick to three. This resulted in more than 1,000 seats between destinations during peak festival periods.
Emirates said in early December that the flights were flying from Dubai to London Gateway at 2.50am, 7.40am and 2.25pm as part of plans to expand its UK operations to meet continued demand ahead of the holiday peak. gram airport.
In addition, in an earlier interview with Gulf News, dnata Travels, the most famous travel agency in the UAE, said that passenger demand from the UAE to the UK has increased by 90% compared to the winter season of 2021.
Hemali Shah, managing director of City One Tourism, added: “Flight prices to this destination are currently very high. For passengers flying Emirates to Gatwick (28 December to 7 January) for a week for a trip to the UK, with an average ticket price of Dh4,100. While travel interest is very high, high ticket prices deter the average customer from traveling.”
Babu confirmed there was strong demand for UK travel from both corporate and leisure travellers. “While the UK has opened up post-COVID-19, the frequency of travel to this destination has not reached pre-pandemic capacity. That being said, there is year-round demand in this industry, especially from business travellers,” Babu said.
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