Day in and day out there’s but one piece of news, a kind of news that troubles, hurts and severely pains. The growing list of casualties who have lost their lives and battles in the face of the torrid Coronavirus. The new wave of COVID 19 in India has been a severe one, in particular. The situation is tense and rather remorseful, truth be told. While on the one hand, even the most prestigious hospitals are struggling to arrange the requisite amount of oxygen, on the other hand, there are those privileged and affluent ones in the society who can afford to sneak out of an embattled India. And guess what- they are actually doing so!
So what are we talking about in particular?
Well, in one of the key pieces of news as on April 29, 2021- it appears that there’s been a rise in the demand for private jets in the country? The reason being, those who can afford to escape India whilst it finds itself challenged by the worst form of COVID epidemic are fleeing away.
A latest report published on WION.com happened to shed light on the current development:
After the UAE shut its airspace to curb the spread of coronavirus in March last year, some residents raised the funds for seats on shared chartered planes that were permitted to fly to Dubai.
Dozens of charter flights zipped passengers from India to Dubai in the days before the new ban, after all, commercial seats were snapped up, and charter companies say demand has since surged.
A 13-seat jet flying from Mumbai to Dubai costs between $35,000 and $38,000, around 35 times the price of a regular ticket. Prices from other cities are even higher.
But that being said, there’s also a ban in place with respect to the arrival of Indian passengers into the UAE. And it’s with regards to this development that several operators have been scrambling to get clarifications in the matter.
Civil aviation has said UAE nationals, diplomats, official delegations and “businessmens’ planes” are excluded from the ban, provided passengers observe measures including a 10-day quarantine.
Then there are those individuals who have been in the UAE for long and would do anything to return back safely to Dubai. For instance, consider long time resident of Dubai Mr. Purushothaman Nair, who has admitted that he’s prepared to spend a fortune in a bid to return safely to Dubai as staying in India is not the ideal thing to do.
In an interaction with the AFP, here’s what he had to say, “My wife and I came to India for just 10 days. We have to fly back to Dubai at any cost.”
Similarly, there are other less-privileged ones albeit those whose vocation happens to be in Dubai. There are several individuals whose employers have already begun to put pressure on them to return back to work. They are the ones who are being pressurised to return back to the UAE via some other countries since, at the moment, there aren’t direct flights from India.
What a strange case of urgency that so many are tasked with and have to confront in these difficult times, won’t you agree?