Brazil flights run thin ahead of World Cup

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• Gulf News Archives Caption lead in Passengers wait in line to from their bags and check into Emirates Airlines flights at Dubai International Airport terminal 3.

Dubai: Last minute Fifa World Cup bound travellers heading to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil this week may have to start looking elsewhere for flights with seats on Emirates’ direct service running thin.

On Sunday, Emirates’ online booking system showed one-way economy tickets for travel on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday starting at Dh9,330. However, there are no flights on Thursday or Friday. The cheapest ticket on Tuesday was a Dh21,580 one-way business class fare and on Sunday a Dh43,280 one-way first class fare.

Emirates, as well as Etihad Airways, have previously said there are no plans to increase the number of available seats to Brazil during the World Cup.

Ghassan Aridi, Alpha Tours chief executive officer, said in a phone interview that “it’s a nightmare reaching Brazil, prices are really high.”

He added that many last minute travellers are going through Europe on airlines such as Lufthansa, Air France and British Airways; however, “there is a lot of traffic as many flights are [also] fully booked.”

The World Cup kicks off on Friday morning at 12:00am local time (UAE) with the opening game between host nation Brazil and fellow Group A team Croatia.

Emirates passengers can still fly to Brazil with seats available on the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday daily Sao Paulo flight.

Sao Paulo, which is hosting the World Cup opener, is 432 kilometres away from Rio.

Other options for UAE-based travellers are boarding a Sao Paulo-bound Etihad Airways flight from Abu Dhabi, with its booking system showing available seats all week.

Qatar Airways passengers can fly to Rio on a codeshare flight that connects with its daily Sao Paulo service. However, Qatar Airways booking systems shows scarce availability this week with seats for sale only on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. One-way fares start at Dh9,584. The codeshare service from Sao Paulo is operated by Vrg Linhas Aereas S A.