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The first hotel in the Emirates: the “BOAC Rest House” at Sharjah airfield

extension (Fig. 3). The Ministry’s
plan shows rooms in the new
extension that are designated for
both ‘European’ and ‘Asiatic’ (i.e.
staff member) occupants.

The Air Ministry’s optimism in
planning more accommodation
was not based on the current
numbers of passengers flying to
and from India with Imperial (Fig. 3)
Airways. On their HP42E planes Proposed extension of the Rest House, 1936 (in
(capacity: eighteen passengers) red, on right) (Air Ministry, London; detail)
the average passenger load per
flight seems to have varied between three and five in 1932-33, rising to about ten in
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1935. Newly located anecdotal accounts confirm these low numbers passing through
Sharjah; for example, three passengers starting from Tiberias plus one boarding at
Bahrain in 1939, and seven travelling from Karachi to Basra in 1935. In addition
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to the passengers, a crew of four (Captain, First Officer, Radio Officer and Steward)
required overnight accommodation but they are not included here in the passenger
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count nor in the estimates of guest room occupancy at the Rest House.

Cost was probably the main deterrent – the widespread fear of flying also played a
part – even though the fare included all accommodation, meals and tips en route
and the overnight stays were in luxury hotels such as the Hotels Grande-Bretagne in
Athens, Oriental in Bangkok and Raffles in Singapore. A single fare London–Karachi
in 1933 cost £95, nearly £5000 in today’s money (it was later reduced to £85). For
those who could afford it, like Major-General D.S. Skelton of the Indian army, the
arguments were strong, he claimed, for going home on leave by air rather than by
sea: of his two months leave, the soldier would have fifty days leave at home instead
of only thirty-two if travelling by sea; serving soldiers received a 10% discount and
a further 10% off if booking a return ticket; and the current roundtrip airfare from
Karachi to London of less than £150 (including all expenses except drinks) compared
well with a first-class passage by ship which, on the fastest liners, cost £139 10s
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roundtrip.
Proposals for increasing passenger accommodation came up again during the Second
World War. Once the Allied victory in North Africa in October 1943 allowed a
re-introduction of the London–Cairo–Calcutta service, BOAC’s services increased
to seven flying-boats and one landplane weekly in each direction. The flying-boats
made a brief stopover on the Dubai creek – few of the scheduled flights required
an overnight stay. If they did, the passengers were conveyed to the Sharjah Rest

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