India's march into the World Cup final in Mumbai is bringing in good news for airlines. Bookings on international routes connecting Mumbai have witnessed a sharp increase in the days leading up to the World Cup final, despite the soaring ticket rates.

“The month of March-April is usually a lean period in terms of NRIs visiting India. But because of the World Cup Final and the India-Pakistan semi-final there has been an increase in the booking activity on routes connecting countries with high NRI population with Mumbai and Amritsar,” said an airline official.

Data from ticket booking sites, makemytrip.com and cleartrip.com, suggest that very few seats are left on Lufthansa, Emirates, Kingfisher Airlines and some of Air India's London-Mumbai routes. This is despite ticket prices going in excess of Rs 50,000 for a return trip from London-Mumbai.

Return airfare surges

A rush of tickets is also seen on the Dubai-Mumbai route of Emirates Airlines, Air India and Gulf Air, according to makemytrip.com. Prices for the route have gone up in excess of Rs 20,000 for return airfare.

“With India being the host to the Cricket World Cup 2011, we were already expecting huge rush during this period. Our bookings have been very healthy throughout the tournament. We have seen significant increase in the traffic to India towards the final phases of the tournament especially since the Indian team has been playing so well,” said Mr Orhan Abbas, Vice-President – India and Nepal, Emirates Airline.

According to a Jet Airways spokesperson, demand was also strong from the SAARC region during the semi-final. “For the semi-finals there was an increase particularly in the demand for chartered flights from the SAARC region. Also, there has been a definite spike in the bookings on our international routes connecting to Mumbai,” said the spokesperson.

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