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Companies are paying tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars to evacuate employees from Dubai, with the cost of private jets and hire vehicles soaring, according to insurance groups providing crisis-response protection.
With the conflict entering its fifth day and some flights from the emirate restarting after a days-long shutdown, an increasing number of residents and employees are seeking to leave Dubai, according to travel agents, insurance groups and people in the region.
The total cost of evacuating one family with two adults and two children ranged as high as $250,000, one insurer said, for employees who end up using private jets. Prices for charter planes have roughly doubled since the weekend, according to multiple people in the industry.
The cost of hiring a taxi or private hire minibus to drive from Dubai to Muscat in Oman or Riyadh in Saudi Arabia — the two most popular destinations for those fleeing the city — has risen to thousands of dollars, up from a few hundred before the weekend.
“We’ve seen [taxi] fares from $5,000 up,” said one insurance executive. “The big problem is this [US state department] evacuation advisory says to leave using available commercial means, but there are few commercial means right now.”
While businesses in the region are telling employees to work remotely, an increasing number of residents, holidaymakers and expats have been seeking to leave, as the conflict shows little sign of abating.
Daria Guristrimba, who runs the Globe7 travel agency for wealthy individuals and has clients in the region, said: “People were staying before [Tuesday], they were staying more or less calm, saying they will not leave. Now they all understand that it’s going to take some time. Now people are leaving for Oman and leaving the country.”
There are other signs that settled families are leaving the region.
“We have seen a vast uplift in requests . . . with pets on board in the last 24 hours as families based in the region make the decision to totally remove themselves,” said Charles Robinson, founder of EnterJet. “They cannot leave their pets at home and flying them commercially is not viable.”
Limited flights are running out of the region, even though some have restarted to and from Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
Emirates, Flydubai and Etihad are running some services to return travellers but said regular services remain suspended. Qatar Airways flights are still grounded because Qatari airspace is closed, while tens of thousands of passengers who had been due to fly out of the region’s hub airports are still stranded.
Governments, including the UK, France, Germany and Italy, are running repatriation flights to bring their citizens home. Air France and KLM each ran one repatriation flight from Muscat on Tuesday, the airline group said.
Lufthansa will operate a flight from Muscat for the German government on Wednesday night, while British Airways said it plans to run one from Muscat on Thursday, with the option for more flights in the following days.
Virgin Atlantic, which on Tuesday became the first European airline to restart its scheduled service to Dubai, had one flight to the emirate and another to Riyadh overnight. Both planes were full and will return to the UK carrying passengers, the airline said on Wednesday.
Both commercial and charter flights were leaving from Muscat on Wednesday morning, data from Flightradar24 showed. The Oman base has become a focal point for people trying to leave Dubai itself, with the border remaining open and border guards waiving visa requirements, according to multiple people who have crossed since the weekend.