Travel industry officials believe that airfares have nearly peaked and will likely experience downward pressure as airlines strive to add more seat capacity in the post-summer period.
Pent-up demand after the epidemic, high oil prices, and vengeance travel and tourism over the past two years are mostly to blame for the steep increase in airfare.
By the summer, we should have resolved all of the supply restrictions, and ticket prices should be returning to more typical levels. The price of tickets has increased significantly since before the introduction of Covid. I'm crossing my fingers that airlines will start flying more frequently and force fares down. According to Wego CEO and co-founder Ross Veitch, "big Gulf carriers are back to where they were preCovid-19 level, but Asia Pacific carriers are bit a slower."
By the end of the summer, Veitch estimates that another 20 to 25 people per capacity will have been added.
On Monday, the CEO of flydubai, Ghaith Al Ghaith, said that airfare will remain at current levels for the next few months.
While there has been a significant increase in fuel prices, airfares have remained stable. Due to a mismatch between supply and demand, airfares have reached all-time highs. Ghaith predicted that the airfare will remain unchanged till the summer.
Emirates has announced more Eid Al Fitr flights, and flydubai and Etihad Airways have added new routes to accommodate the increased traffic.
The founder of Wego also mentioned that not all airlines have resumed normal operations, thus some of the supply is still being restored.
Search volume on Wego has returned to pre-pandemic levels, indicating a rise in demand for travel.
He noted that the ratio of tourists to business travellers is roughly the same as it was before the outbreak. Visiting loved ones was the initial impetus, but this year has seen an increase in vacation trips.
PREFERRED VISA-WAIVER COUNTRIES
According to Al Rais Travel's manager of marketing, individuals are more likely to travel in the aftermath of the epidemic, and they are more likely to visit countries that offer convenient entry options like on-arrival and online visas.
"Most travellers avoid destinations with complicated visa requirements and long processing times. Also, he added, "people prefer and like to go four times a year, up from two times in the pre-pandemic era."
Zachariah elaborated by saying that weekend trips to nearby places like Georgia and Eastern Europe are very popular.
According to Zachariah, the holiday travel habits of UAE citizens have changed in recent years.
"Ramadan and the summer are also very busy seasons now."
A RISING TREND IN INCENTIVE TOURISM
According to Dadabhai Travel's general manager Farzana Sameer, the first quarter was fantastic, with record numbers of tourists visiting Dubai. There is a lot of incentive travel given out by firms as a means of rewarding their staff.
The summer should be pleasant, we hope. This summer will be anything but boring. People yearn to see the world. They had held back at first, but now they weren't even trying," she said.
