Indore residents gain direct UAE access; subsidized Air India Express service cuts travel

Travelers from Indore can now reach Abu Dhabi in three hours and 15 minutes, no layover in Delhi or Mumbai required. The Air India Express service, which launched this week with state government backing, runs four days a week on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays, and marks Madhya Pradesh’s first subsidized international air route.

The practical difference for passengers is immediate. Fares on the Indore-Abu Dhabi leg are expected to range from Rs 12,000 to Rs 15,000, roughly half the Rs 24,000 to Rs 25,000 that travelers previously paid when booking connecting flights through major hubs. Journey time drops by approximately half as well. That combination of lower cost and shorter travel time is made possible by Viability Gap Funding of Rs 15 lakh per round trip, provided by the state government under its Civil Aviation Policy 2025.

Chief Minister Mohan Yadav flagged off the inaugural flight at a ceremony held at Indore’s Devi Ahilyabai Holkar International Airport on Wednesday. He described the service as a catalyst for broader economic activity, pointing to stronger bilateral ties between India and the United Arab Emirates and new pathways for trade, investment, and tourism. The Malwa-Nimar region, he said, stands to benefit particularly from improved Gulf connectivity.

Early demand was encouraging. Around 100 seats were booked on the first outbound flight from Indore, while the return service from Abu Dhabi carried roughly 170 bookings. Yadav expressed confidence that passenger volumes would grow as awareness of the route spreads.

Meanwhile, the Indore-Abu Dhabi launch sits within a wider push to expand air access across Madhya Pradesh. Since Yadav took office, three new airports have been inaugurated across the state. Two more are under construction in Ujjain and Shivpuri. Domestic routes already added include Rewa-Delhi, Rewa-Indore, and Rewa-Raipur, with work underway on Jabalpur-Kolkata, Bhopal-Rewa, Bhopal-Patna, and Rewa-Kolkata services. Helicopter connectivity from Indore to Ujjain and Omkareshwar is also being expanded.

Officials are pursuing further extensions of the Regional Air Connectivity Scheme to underserved districts including Shajapur, Neemuch, Chhindwara, and Mandla. The subsidized model, in other words, may not stop at international routes.

The Indore-Abu Dhabi service is, in effect, a public experiment. By absorbing a share of operational costs, the state has lowered the barrier to international travel for residents who might otherwise have deferred such trips or accepted longer journeys as unavoidable. Whether the route generates enough economic return through trade and tourism to justify ongoing subsidy will almost certainly shape how far the government is willing to extend that model to smaller population centers still waiting for their first scheduled service.