Economy flights from Moscow to Dubai cost up to $5,000 as Russians flee

Dubai, United Arab Emirates – Round-trip economy flights from Moscow to Dubai cost up to $5,000, many of which were sold out in the days after Russian President Vladimir Putin. Announcing the “partial” mobilization of 300,000 reserve soldiers to fight in Ukraine.

The five-hour flight cost about $350 one week before the announcement, which was delivered on September 21.

Current prices on Emirates and flydubai airlines for the month between September 28 and October 26 range between $2,577 and $4,773 for a round-trip economy ticket, according to those airlines’ websites. The cheapest of these is more than twice the average Russian monthly salary of $965, according to Statista.com. The cost of direct flights to Dubai from Saint Petersburg, the second largest city in Russia, was about $2,600.

Round-trip economy flights to Abu Dhabi from Moscow cost about $3000 on Etihad Airways.

Flights with links are available at lower prices, but are still well above average, according to Google Travel. An economy class ticket to Dubai on Azerbaijan Airlines with a layover in Baku was between $988 and $1,040 per week between September 28 and October 6, three times its price before the mobilization was announced.

“The Russians are avoiding,” Ian Bremmer, CEO of risk advisory firm Eurasia Group, wrote on Twitter, along with a video from flight-tracking website Flightradar24.com showing throngs of planes leaving Russia over the course of a few days.

For those with more money to spend, seats on private jets are an option, but their prices have gone up, too. The Russians ‘pay between £20,000 and £25,000’ [$21,300 and $26,600] For a seat on a private plane, Guardian Books In a report released on Tuesday, several times more than normal fares, quoting the head of a private airline said demand had increased 50-fold.

Prices for flights from Russia in general have increased And a lot SOLD OUT In the days following the news, satellite imagery as well as footage posted on media and social media shows miles-long lines of cars backed up for miles on Russia’s borders with Finland, Georgia, Kazakhstan and several other countries. The government of Kazakhstan reported receiving nearly 100,000 Russians last week.

But the UAE, and Dubai in particular, is a favorite of Russian travelers and expats. Already since Western countries imposed a wave of sanctions on Russia after that put it in Directing his forces to invade Ukraine on February 24, large numbers of Russians moved to the sunny desert principality where they could live without sanctions.

They are also credited with Strengthening the luxury real estate sector in DubaiWhile wealthy businessmen and other wealthy businessmen snap up multimillion-dollar coastal villas, some live in them and some as a place to store their money.

Before Russia releases a file war with ukraine, the population of Russians living in the United Arab Emirates was about 40 thousand people. Surely it will be more now.

“Everyone is leaving. A lot of people I know,” a Russian national living in Dubai, who asked not to be identified due to safety concerns, told CNBC.

“Flights [from Russia] To Dubai is fully booked for the next three or four days and the prices are insane. Flights to Istanbul are also full, flights to [Armenian capital] Yerevan is expensive. I know five or six people who arrived in Dubai a few days ago. They paid crazy prices.”

She added, “The problem is that until you receive the document calling for military service, you can be allowed out of the country. However, you can’t stay out of the country just because you don’t have residency. Anywhere else.”

She said many of the Russians who arrive in Dubai to escape the military deployment are staying at the homes of friends and family members. But after the 60-day UAE tourist visa period has passed, the plan is unknown.

One Dubai-based pilot from the United Kingdom described Russian friends and colleagues looking for ways to get themselves or their relatives to other countries.

“People say that their friends have already received draft letters” even though there is no military experience, said the pilot, so this story that Russia is mobilizing people with military experience is just nonsense. The Kremlin has tried to dispel the Russians’ fears about proliferation by insisting However, only persons with prior training will be called.

The pilot, who spoke anonymously due to professional restrictions, added that he had also received a request from a Russian acquaintance asking to live in his apartment in Dubai.

It is not clear what many of these individuals plan to do once their visitor visas run out, and residents of Dubai are now afraid to return to Russia. The scariest scenario, many of them say, is that Putin closes the borders to prevent military-age men from leaving before they or their families can get out.