Air India Express becomes first airline to link Northeast India directly with UAE

Air India Express has become the first airline to connect Northeast India directly with West Asia, launching new flights linking Guwahati with Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

The Guwahati-Dubai service began operating on August 4, while the Guwahati-Abu Dhabi route started on August 7, giving the region direct access to two major Gulf hubs for the first time.

The Guwahati-Dubai flight operates every Tuesday, departing Guwahati at 12:25 and arriving in Dubai at 16:10, with the return flight departing Dubai at 17:10 and landing back in Guwahati the following day.

The Guwahati-Abu Dhabi service runs every Friday, departing Guwahati at 11:30 and arriving in Abu Dhabi at 15:15.

With the addition of these two routes, Guwahati now has direct international connectivity to four countries: the UAE, Thailand, Singapore and Bhutan.

Air India Express said the new services mark its first overseas operations from Guwahati and are expected to boost tourism, trade and business links between Northeast India and the Gulf region.

The airline currently operates more than 290 weekly flights from its four stations in Northeast India, which include Dibrugarh, Dimapur, Guwahati and Imphal.

Previously, travellers from Assam and the wider Northeast had to connect through hubs such as Delhi, Mumbai or Kolkata to reach Gulf destinations, adding significant time to journeys to and from the UAE.

The UAE is home to a sizeable population of Indian expatriates from Assam and neighbouring states, many of whom have relied on connecting itineraries to travel home for family visits or work.

The new routes also give Assam’s tea, handicraft and agricultural exporters a more direct air corridor to Gulf markets, alongside the existing connectivity to Thailand, Singapore and Bhutan from Guwahati.

Air India Express is the low-cost international arm of the Air India group, and the new Gulf routes add to its existing overseas connections from Guwahati to Bangkok, Singapore and Paro.

Photo by Md Shaifuzzaman Ayon, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0