MUMBAI: Want a cheap holiday abroad? Beat the April rush of summer vacation planners by booking your tickets now, while flights to destinations like New York, Dubai, London and Bangkok are going cheap. Prices are lower right now than they were for most of last year.

With both fuel prices and travel down, international airlines are offering a slew of cheap fares to stimulate demand. For example, a round trip fare to New York is just Rs 39,200, taxes included, if you’re willing to put up with a stopover in Abu Dhabi. Etihad is offering the fare till March 29 for travel till June and return within six months.

If you hate stopovers, Air India and Continental Airlines are both offering a return fare of Rs 43,800 for a direct flight between Mumbai and New York, provided you buy the ticket before March 31 and travel before April 15. Last year, the fare on this route was in the range of Rs 50,000 to Rs 55,000.

Southeast Asian destinations, as usual, are going cheap. While Thai Airways offers a Mumbai-Bangkok-Mumbai ticket for Rs 12,800, Jet Airways offers the same for Rs 14,000, and Air India for Rs 12,200. Dubai is affordable, too. The fare for a weekend to the popular West Asian shopping destination works out to Rs 16,500 on Emirates and Rs 10,500 on Air India. Emirates sold the same route for Rs 20,000 earlier.

“If these fares continue, we’ll see a good travel season this summer. A lot of Indians would prefer going abroad to travelling in India,” said Anoop Kanuga of Bathija Travels, who is also the chairman, western region, Travel Agents’ Association of India.

London is another attractive destination this month, with the lowest fares for a round trip on a direct flight ranging from Rs 26,500 (Air India) to Rs 30,000 (British Airways). If you can stomach a three-hour stopover at Abu Dhabi, you can go to London and back for as little as Rs 21,900 by Etihad.

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