Time Out hops aboard Rotana Jet’s new three-times-a-week flight to Dubai, to see if it’s worth giving the traffic-heavy Sheikh Zayed Road a miss.
Fly to Dubai
Launched in August this year, Rotana Jet are offering an alternative to the daily commute down Sheikh Zayed Road. If you’re making the trip out of the capital for work or pleasure, why not think about avoiding the traffic and monotonous desert highway, and instead opt for a short 25-minute flight from Al Bateen Airport to Terminal 2 of Dubai International Airport. With one way tickets starting at Dhs100 it’s also cheap. We were keen to explore whether this really was the most convenient way for people to travel between the two biggest cities in the UAE, and so to test the new service out, we challenged ourselves to get from our home office in downtown Abu Dhabi to our colleagues’ office at Time Out Dubai in the shortest time possible.
First you have the matter of getting to the airport itself, which is near Khalifa Park, which can be quick or not – depending on where you’re arriving from. Unless you’re travelling to Sir Bani Yas or Delma Island, it is advisable to take your passport with you. You will certainly need it if you are flying back from Dubai International Airport.
The flight leaves at 9.15am from Abu Dhabi (flights from Dubai to Abu Dhabi leave at 4.50pm), and the check-in desk closes 30 minutes before departure, if you arrive after this time you won’t be allowed to fly – so this adds to your overall journey time.
We then board the plane – a 50 seater, twin propeller Embraer Jet. The inside of the plane is distinctly old school. The power points, TV screens and other bells and whistles the modern flyer has come to expect are nowhere to be found. All you get is either a twin seat or an adjacent single seat along with a smiley hostess who’s happy to supply you with water but not much else. But then for a 25 minute flight, why complain? Following a delay on the runway we finally lift off around 20 minutes late. It’s worth noting that if you’re a jittery flyer, this experience is probably not for you because the turns and ascent feel more extreme than on a larger aircraft – we actually enjoy this novelty though. Once airborne, the flight really starts beating the mundane desert surrounds of Sheikh Zayed Road. The journey takes you parallel to the coast, where there’s an opportunity to take in the landmarks including the Burj Khalifa, Burj Al Arab and the palm and the marina as you approach Dubai.
Landing at Dubai International Airport is fairly standard, however it’s worth remembering for the return journal that Al Bateen Airport is a dedicated private jet airport so you get an interesting insight into how the other (rich) half live. Essentially, you disembark, put your possessions through the security scanner and you’re home free (in less than five minutes). However, as it’s clearly an airport that’s primarily aimed at the sort of flyer who can probably afford something superior to a cab, there aren’t the abundance of transport options once you walk out the door as you might expect from a larger airport.
Ultimately we did make it back to the office, and in one piece at that, so the service does indeed work.
The verdict
In essence, the flight and service are faultless, but unless you live or work next to the airports on both ends we can’t really recommend using Rotana Jet as a time-saving method of transport for commuting. Similarly, if you’re in Dubai for pleasure, the further away you find yourself from the airport the more redundant the flight service becomes. With Dubai just an hour away (traffic permitting), it’s actually far quicker to simply drive. Dhs100 is half the price of the cab fare, and air travel is statistically far safer than chancing your luck on the UAE roads, but once you’ve factored in the expense of getting to the airport and travelling on to your destination, as a cost-saving method of transport the whole thing looks less feasible. If you are a plane nut, you despise the Sheikh Zayed Road or you want to avoid the traffic it starts to make a bit more sense and we think it’s certainly worth trying (even if it’s just for the views alone).
Rotana Jet flies from Abu Dhabi to Dubai on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays at 9.15am. Flights from Dhs100. www.rotanajet.com (02 444 0002).
