Travel rates in the UAE have risen as vaccines roll out and Eid holidays offered residents of the emirates a chance to escape the summer heat. However, flight data still indicates a substantial setback from summer 2019 with the week of Eid al Adha 2021 showing 31 percent lower flight capacity than the same week two years ago, according to John Grant of the Official Airline Guide (OAG).
“In terms of capacity this week remains 31% below the same week two years ago as international capacity particularly fails to start as lockdowns, sudden changes in travel restrictions and zealous testing requirements impact both capacity and consumer confidence to book any flights.,” Grant said.
Despite an increasing vaccine rollout rate and a general easing of restrictions, travel trends remain slower.
“We are seeing more and more passengers travelling as the restrictions ease,” chief executive officer of Flydubai Ghaith Al Ghaith said. “However, these still are not at pre-pandemic levels. We have seen healthy seat factors for the month of June and July and Eid Al Adha was our busiest week with 942 departures.”
While the summer months have offered some hope for travel agencies and airlines, a higher rate of travel during the season is not unique to this year.
“There hasn’t been a stark steady increase in tickets sold, with the exception of June,” managing director of the Middle East & Africa section at FCM Travel Ciaran Kelly said. “This was by far our biggest month pre-Covid in terms of business travel activity.”
He continued “Due to Eid in July there has been a slight decrease in volumes but hopefully after August business travel will start to rise again. This is normal due to the Summer school holidays. Our entire industry is hoping more and more markets like the UK will open for business travel and restrictions will relax for the UAE.”
Despite some increase in travel rates, recovery rates are not as substantial as many experts had predicted.
“Numbers are still around 30 percent pre-Covid levels,” Kelly said. “The projections the industry was hoping for were at 50 percent plus recovery for this period. However, the traffic light system introduced by the UK government a few months ago and the restriction on the UAE has stifled this growth from happening.”
Ciaran Kelly, managing director of the Middle East & Africa section at FCM Travel.
Kelly said the variety of international quarantine rules have prevented travel rates from bouncing back at a quicker rate.
“The restrictions imposed by governments in key markets such as UK, India, Saudi and South Africa have influenced the volume of traffic across various regions,” he said. “Nonetheless travel within the GCC accounts for 30% of our volume and the rest in a mixture of international trips to those markets mentioned above.”
When analysing the summer’s flight trends, it appears as though closer, quick trips have been more popular in the region than further, long trips.
“Travel is generally short-haul, within regions rather than long-haul at the moment because of that confidence factor,” Grant said. “We have seen travellers routing through those countries that have slightly easier entry requirements and then travelling inwards to destinations such as the UK but in the scheme of things these are small numbers.”
Flydubai has also seen an uptick in short-haul flights, namely those in the Mediterranean region.
“We have launched six seasonal summer routes including flights to Bodrum, Mykonos and Santorini which have proved to be popular with our passengers,” Ghaith said. “Most popular leisure destinations in order of passengers carried are Tbilisi, Male and Zanzibar. We carried more than 29,000 passengers in June and July to Tbilisi.”
Ghaith Al Ghaith, chief executive officer of Flydubai.
The Official Airline Guide has found that there is a surge upon countries’ reopening of their borders, followed by a tapering of traveller volumes.
“Once a market reopens we see a typical burst of demand followed by a return to normal levels as people have taken that essentially trip and become increasingly wary of being trapped overseas as with the Tasman Bubble which closed overnight, once again stranding people in the wrong country,” Grant said. “That pattern of stop and start will continue we suspect.”
Travel services and airlines continue to adapt to the ever-evolving pandemic climate.
“Accurate information is key to clients,” Kelly said. “Those that are travelling want to know accurate country entry requirements, restrictions, quarantine rules and any obligatory hotel costs linked to their journey.
Companies like FCM Travel have forged partnerships with the medical community to keep travel safe and seamless.
“Last year we partnered with MedCare within the UAE to offer PCR testing for our customers at home, hotel or at a clinic as part of the service offering,” he said. “In addition, our own mobile app has been enhanced with key COVID-related information to help the traveller and travel arranger keep accurately informed with artificial intelligent alerts related to their journey.”
John Grant of the Official Airline Guide (OAG).
As markets around the world will take substantial time to heal from the pandemic, the travel industry is proving to be no exception.
“Airlines will have to be flexible, adjust schedules more frequently and then price to stimulate demand,” Grant said. “It will take some time for the market to really recover – probably not before 2024 at least given where we are and the challenges ahead.”
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