NEW DELHI: Indian visitors were the second biggest overseas travellers to the US this summer holiday season, despite visa delays and sky-high airfares. June 2022 saw 40.6 lakh non-US resident international visitors to America — up 135% from June 2021 but still just 64.2% of the pre-Covid June 2019, says the US department of commerce.
“The largest number of international visitor arrivals (in June) was from Canada (10 lakh), Mexico (9.9 lakh), the UK (2.7 lakh), India (1.4 lakh) and Germany (1.3 lakh). Combined, these top five source markets accounted for 59.2% of total international arrivals,” the US department of commerce says. Since Canada and Mexico shared land border with the US, the UK and India were the two biggest overseas source markets for inbound travellers to America this June.
Travel industry insiders say the numbers from India could have been much higher as the demand for travel is huge but the same has been suppressed by a number of factors like unprecedented airfares and continuing visa delays. Russia’s war on Ukraine has led to high oil prices and a majority of western carriers are not even overflying the Russian airspace. Which means they have to take longer routes on several sectors at a time when jet fuel is near record high levels.
As a result, United, for instance, has suspended its Delhi-San Francisco and Mumbai-Newark nonstops from earlier this year. Delta is yet to resume its India operations after March 2020. And American has only a daily on Delhi-New York route. New India routes the US carriers were to start are on hold. Air India is the biggest operator of India-US nonstops but it will be able to cash in on the demand by adding flights only post fleet expansion.
The combined result of high fuel prices, longer routes and lower direct capacity has led to airfares reaching unheard of levels. A one-way fare today costs more than return fares of pre-Covid times. Delhi-New York, for instance, economy return used to cost around Rs 70-75,000 in pre-Covid times. Today this can be as high as Rs 2 lakh in peak travel season.
“Mainly essential travel is taking place right now by people who already have visas. First time US visa applicants in India are getting appointments for March-April 2024,” says travel agents.
“The largest number of international visitor arrivals (in June) was from Canada (10 lakh), Mexico (9.9 lakh), the UK (2.7 lakh), India (1.4 lakh) and Germany (1.3 lakh). Combined, these top five source markets accounted for 59.2% of total international arrivals,” the US department of commerce says. Since Canada and Mexico shared land border with the US, the UK and India were the two biggest overseas source markets for inbound travellers to America this June.
Travel industry insiders say the numbers from India could have been much higher as the demand for travel is huge but the same has been suppressed by a number of factors like unprecedented airfares and continuing visa delays. Russia’s war on Ukraine has led to high oil prices and a majority of western carriers are not even overflying the Russian airspace. Which means they have to take longer routes on several sectors at a time when jet fuel is near record high levels.
As a result, United, for instance, has suspended its Delhi-San Francisco and Mumbai-Newark nonstops from earlier this year. Delta is yet to resume its India operations after March 2020. And American has only a daily on Delhi-New York route. New India routes the US carriers were to start are on hold. Air India is the biggest operator of India-US nonstops but it will be able to cash in on the demand by adding flights only post fleet expansion.
The combined result of high fuel prices, longer routes and lower direct capacity has led to airfares reaching unheard of levels. A one-way fare today costs more than return fares of pre-Covid times. Delhi-New York, for instance, economy return used to cost around Rs 70-75,000 in pre-Covid times. Today this can be as high as Rs 2 lakh in peak travel season.
“Mainly essential travel is taking place right now by people who already have visas. First time US visa applicants in India are getting appointments for March-April 2024,” says travel agents.