If you missed out on your summer holiday or if the volcanic ash smoked you out of Europe, here is a respite. International airlinesBoeing tests inside of new 787 DreamlinerBoeing Dreamliner on maiden flight continue to roll out special holiday packages, which for the south Indian market, is like an end-of season summer sale.
While the summer holiday season in south would end in the first week of June with reopening of schools, the holiday cheer would continue till July in the northern parts of the country.
Emirates, which operates 184 flights to India, has just launched a holiday package where by parents can take their children along for free. The airline is offering free return tickets, stay, food, visa charges, and entry fees at entertainment hotspots in Dubai, for children below the age of 16 years. This offer has been bundled into a package where an adult is charged Rs 32,105 for a 4-day 3-night stay in Dubai.
At Rs 10,000 more, Dragon Air and Cathay Pacific offer holiday packages to Disney Land in Hong Kong. However , there’s no free ride for the children here.
Then there are a slew of offers by various airlines for business and first class travellers, where by the spouse is entitled to a 50% discount on a return ticket.
“Definitely, travel is back with a vengeance this year. People are travelling unlike last year, when travel was down 50% or more,” says Orhan Abbas, Emirates’ VP, for Indian and Nepal. Gopinath Nair, CEO of Travel Tours adds, “This summer season has been exceptionally good for airlines , as most of them are operating at nearly 100% occupancy. This despite the fact that airlines have raised their prices by 10% as compared to the summer fares last year.”
If you’re looking at value air fares, Silk Air is offering return fares to Singapore at Rs 14,000. Return fares to Vietnam, Indonesia and Cambodia are being offered by the airline for Rs 21,000 to Rs 25,000. For the budget-conscious travellers, Air Asia is offering return tickets to Kula Lumpur at Rs 8,500, which is inclusive of all airport charges.
“People are bold and are trying out newer destinations. Beijing and Shanghai have been hot picks this year. Also, the volcanic ash effect has resulted in some spill over of traffic on to new destinations including the south-east Asian market,” says Nikhil Kilpady, sales manager, Karnataka region of Cathay Pacific and Dragon Air.
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