Airfares during this festival season have gone up by 40 per cent, much higher than what the industry had anticipated, according to Online Travel Agencies (OTAs). 

Over the past two years, travel has been subdued due to the covid-19 pandemic. This resulted in airfares plummeting. However, this year the demand is back, which has pushed the tariffs up. ATF prices have skyrocketed, adding to the fare hike.

Weeks prior to Diwali, EaseMyTrip had forecasted that the airfares would go up to 20 per cent on key routes. However, the travel portal has recorded an increase of upto 30 per cent in airfares in reality. 

Similarly, ixigo had predicted that airfares would increase by 20-30 per cent. According to Aloke Bajpai, co-founder & group CEO, ixigo, “The removal of airfare caps, the surge in demand and geopolitical tensions (Russia-Ukraine war) are factors that have resulted in higher airfares during the festive season this year. Last-minute fares for popular routes will see a steep jump of 35-40 per cent due to high travel demand.” 

Similarly, days before Diwali, Cleartrip too had projected that airfares could rise up to 36 per cent and it witnessed a hike in airfares of up to 40 per cent for cetrain routes. “Overall, the segment size has gone up by 5 per cent on overage this year,” a Cleartrip spokesperson said.

Soaring fares

According to Kayak, airfares to Ahmedabad have soared by 67 percent, while New Delhi has witnessed a spike of 57 percent, and Mumbai and Hyderabad have witnessed a spike of 45 per cent.

“Kayak has seen a significant rise in flight searches over the Diwali festival period (travel between October 19 and October 24), with domestic flight searches increasing about 124 per cent and international flight searches increasing about 133 per cent, compared to the same period in 2019. This is despite return economy domestic flights increasing the price by about 39 per cent and return economy international flights increasing by about 40 per cent compared to 2019,” it said.

Bharatt Malik, Senior Vice President, Flights, Yatra.com, said that this spike in travel demand has directly impacted airfares. “While the airfares across certain metro-to-metro routes have dropped in comparison to 2019 by 16-18 per cent, there is a significant rise of about 17-20 per cent in comparison to 2021. Unlike the metro routes, the airfares for non-metro to non-metro routes in 2022 have witnessed a notable increase of 26 per cent as compared to 2019 and 6-8 per cent in comparison to 2021.”

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