Surat: Due to the good response to Air India Express’s Surat-Sharjah flight from Surat, the airline has sought slot approval from the Airport Authority of India to operate this flight on two days, Thursday and Saturday as well as Monday. After getting this labor, the airlines started booking tickets from Surat 3 days a week on Thursday, Saturday and Monday from December 1.
- From December, Sharjah-Surat flights will operate 3 days a week instead of 2
- Air India Express has started booking Thursday, Saturday and Monday tickets from Surat
Before corona infection, this flight was running 4 days in a week. Airlines from Surat received bumper bookings of 176 seats against 189 seater aircraft in the last 3 months. So in the winter schedule from October-2022 to March-2023, Surat will operate on Thursday, Saturday and Monday. However, the ticket rate has been kept at 23,000. Surat airport handled 2028 international passengers in October-2022. Traders from Surat and South Gujarat who have business in Dubai are using this flight more.
Traders from Sharjah reach Dubai by taxi. Earlier, tickets for this flight were available for Rs 8,500 to 10,000. Now on normal days the ticket price ranges from 18000 to 23000 rupees. However, on average, a good number of passengers are moving in each flight from Surat. While the number of domestic passengers from Surat airport has been declining, the number of passengers on Sharjah-Surat flights has increased during the last 3 months. Given the Diwali vacation, a Thursday flight in early November may also get a good response.
There was also talk of starting a direct flight from Surat to Dubai
A large number of people travel from Surat to Dubai and from there to all over the world. Domestic passengers are also increasing. Suratis have been demanding that flights from Surat to Dubai, Singapore and Bangkok should be started. Surat’s business and industry also frequently sought to start flights to international destinations including Dubai. There were also rumors that Indigo Air Lines is now going to start direct flights to Dubai. Four months ago there was talk that the airline had got a slot in Dubai and in a month or two the airline could start flights to Dubai. But after that there is no update. It is possible that in the next day these airlines may officially announce the start of flights.