Air India Express has made a recent announcement by initiating a direct flight to connect Dubai and India. The flight will connect the Indian city Surat, and Dubai.

This is the very first airline to launch a budget carrier that will fly to connect both cities directly. The flight completed the journey during the auspicious occasion of the inauguration of the international terminal at Surat Airport inaugurated by the honourable prime minister of India, Narendra Modi. The first flight landed at DXB or the Dubai International Airport on Sunday, December 17, 2023, carrying and safely landing 171 passengers.

Aloke Singh, the managing director of Air India Express, “Surat holds great importance for Air India Express as we expand our network on the back of a new fleet. We are part of the moment when Surat International Airport is growing and unveiling its new terminal. Air India Express is committed to fueling the growth story of Surat, as we connect the City of Diamonds to the City of Gold with this historic flight.”

The airline has a plan to operate four flights every week through the Surat-Dubai route. Currently, Air India Express is the only airline exclusively operating international flights that completes the journey starting from Surat to Sharjah, with five flights flying every week.

Aloke Singh recently revealed that Air India Express is looking forward to expanding its capacity to connect with the Gulf region, which includes the United Arab Emirates. The airline also aims to provide effective and worthy connectivity to all travellers flying to the Gulf region in different Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities all over India.

“There will be some capacity increases to Saudi Arabia and a little bit to Bahrain, Qatar, and UAE. Between UAE and Kerala, the market is pretty well-served. We may be looking at increasing capacity from Kannur, a somewhat new point. On the Kerala-Gulf market, we will be offering some connectivity beyond points in Kerala to other points in India, so that people from the UAE and Gulf region will have better connectivity within different cities across India,” Aloke Sigh further added.

The India-Dubai route is one of the busiest airline corridors as the United Arab Emirates is among the major destinations for the maximum number of Indian exodus, which is approximately larger than one-third of the complete population of the United Arab Emirates. Equally, Dubai is always one most loved destinations by tourists from India. According to the tourism figures, and Dubai’s Economy, during the first 10 months of 2023, India was the first country for tourists have visited Dubai. The number of total tourists has reached more than 1.99 million, which has increased by 39 percent.

The airline, Air India Express flies between multiple destinations across the United Arab Emirates, including Dubai International Airport or DXB with 80 direct flights, followed by 77 flights to Sharjah flying weekly, and 31 flights to Abu Dhabi. The other destination in the United Arab Emirates includes Al Ain and Ras Al Khaimah with 2 and 5 flights respectively to fly every week.