Dubai: UAE’s airline and tourism sector hoping for a demand boost from India for the Eid and summer breaks have reasons to be worried by the COVID-19 surge sweeping through the country.
Indian states have again imposed partial lockdowns as daily infection numbers have gone past the 200,000 mark. More troubling is the detection of a ‘double-mutant’ COVID-19 strain, and which will have expat Indian in the UAE and Gulf making plans to visit home to hit a pause.
“News of the ‘Indian’ variant of the virus is a blow to the hopes of a stable recovery in passenger traffic in the region,” said Orkun Altintas, regional Director of Consulting - Aerospace & Defense Practice, at Frost & Sullivan.