Comments
Travellers who were looking for cheap options on the pre-Diwali weekend were disappointed.
Despite the domestic air travel market shrinking, airfares were high on various sectors over the weekend, with travel agents pegging the jump between 80 and 120 per cent.
Iqbal Mulla, President, Travel Agents Association of India, said domestic airfares during this Diwali rose by as much as 150 per cent compared with last year.
According to travel agents, a Delhi-Mumbai return ticket was priced at Rs 30,000 over the weekend which is almost the same as the return fare between Mumbai and Dubai or Mumbai and Bangkok.
Even in sectors like Mumbai-Indore and Mumbai-Nagpur witnessed a record high in airfares for the Diwali weekend.
Travel agents maintain that a part of this increase can be attributed to Kingfisher, with a market share of 19 per cent, not being operational this year. This led to a reduction in the total number of flights and thus to higher fares.
“Though Indigo and SpiceJet have added capacity, the presence of an additional airline makes a difference in the airfares, especially in the peak season,” says Sanjay Bhasin, MD, Goibibo.
Others like Amber Dubey, Partner and Head-Aviation KPMG, agree that there has been an increase in domestic airfares. He, however, adds that in winter last year the trend was of aggressive price cutting with extra-high fares around high demand days.
“This year the trend is of pricing tickets above costs and then keeping it within a narrow band. This may prove to be the right strategy in the long run,” he says.
He cites the one-way spot fare on the Delhi-Mumbai route which is still in the Rs 8,000-10,000 range both on pre and post weekends.
“This is ringing warning bells. The Government has to bring in structural reforms now or else we may see some more domestic carriers in serious distress,” adds Dubey.
Further, airlines also maintain that flyers have to pay such high fares only if they go in for last minute bookings.
If ne books in advance, the fares are not that steep, even for a festival weekend like Diwali. Most full fare airlines offer lower fares if one books seven, 15, 21 and 30 days in advance.
>nivedita.ganguly@thehindu.co.in
>ashwini.phadnis@thehindu.co.in
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.