Isolated students enjoy free flights

The Crown prince keeps air fares low for homesick students from Delma Island.

Delma Island residents board their free flight home at Abu Dhabi airport.

ABU DHABI // When Safeya al Hammadi leaves university at weekends to visit her family, she does so on a 50-seat aeroplane. As a student in Al Ain whose family lives on Delma Island, she is among scores of girls who are provided with free flights home every weekend by the Abu Dhabi Government. "I miss my family, so I am very happy when I can go back to Delma," said Miss Hammadi, 22, a business student. The Government also provides, through Abu Dhabi Aviation, free flights six days a week to and from Delma Island primarily for its Emirati and expatriate residents. The flights have been operating for about four years, said Ahmed al Khouri, the adviser to Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed, chairman of Abu Dhabi Aviation.

"It was part of the Crown Prince's instructions to keep Delma open and alive, and one of the ways is through providing a way to get to and from the island," Mr Khouri said. "The main aim is to support the islanders, who should have access to the capital. There are many professionals working there." Abu Dhabi Aviation also operates the weekly flights between Delma and Al Ain - but only for girls studying at university in the city. There is no university or college on the island, which many islanders lament.

Young people must travel to cities such as Al Ain or Abu Dhabi to pursue their higher education, contributing to migration from the island. Delma Island's population has fallen to 4,800, from 6,000 in 2001. As many as 100 girls from Delma families travel to the island on weekends, leaving on Thursday afternoons and returning on Saturday evenings, in time for classes. "Sometimes we operate two flights for the girls," Mr Khouri said. "It can take seven to eight hours for them to get back to the island from Al Ain if they have to travel by car to Jebel Dhanna and then by ferry to the island."

University rules dictate that female students cannot leave campus without a parent or relative with them, Mr Khouri said. "Boys can get in the car and drive back to Delma, but not the girls," he said. "There is a sensitivity about the girls travelling outside the campus. If they leave, they should go back to their families in Delma." For the past four years, residents have been transported between Delma, the capital and Al Ain on a Dash 8 Q300 series aircraft. Previously, the military was responsible for the service.

Just as her sister Safeya does today, Fatima al Hammadi used to travel on the plane to Delma Island when she was at Al Ain University, studying for her English literature degree. She now lives and works back on Delma, but at least once a month she goes to Abu Dhabi, taking advantage of the free flights. "It only takes around 35 minutes to fly," Fatima said. "It really makes everything easier, instead of travelling by boat, which takes so long and you can get seasick."

She goes to the mainland mostly to shop. "It's the most basic thing for us," she said. Delma Island's airport terminal is spartan - little more than a cavernous, two-room building - but Mr Khouri said the runway is large enough for a full-size aircraft, such as a Boeing or an Airbus, to land. And there are plans to land commercial planes there, he said, to cater for the increased number of tourists expected to visit Delma and surrounding islands, such as Sir Bani Yas.

"This is just the beginning," Mr Khouri said. "The way I see it in the future is that there will be daily flights for residents and tourists." Each of the planes costs more than Dh73m (US$20m) to purchase, in addition to operating and maintenance costs. Mr Khouri said a fee may be charged for the flights in the future. "But if we start charging, it may just be a token amount, or we might just charge the operational cost of the flight - no more," he said.

Booking for the flights can be made only the day a passenger is flying - normally between noon and 2pm, or earlier for the early flights - at the Abu Dhabi Aviation terminal at Abu Dhabi International Airport. From Sunday to Wednesday, there is one flight to the island, leaving Abu Dhabi at around 3pm. The plane turns around immediately after collecting passengers on Delma Island, arriving back on the mainland at around 5pm. Thursday's flight leaves Abu Dhabi at around 1pm and Saturday's flight leaves Abu Dhabi at noon.