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On Sunday afternoon, former Finance Minister P Chidambaram took to Twitter to rant about soaring business class fares on Air India and Vistara on the Delhi-Chennai route. While one-stop flights are in the range mentioned by the former FM, non-stop flights continue to be in the normal range of business class airfares.
“Delhi-Chennai Business Class air tickets on Vistara and Air India have been set at a ‘reasonable’ price of ₹6,300 and ₹5,700 respectively, Oops, sorry, they are set at a ‘very reasonable’ ₹63,000 and ₹57,000 respectively,” he said in his tweet.
He added: “In free markets, when demand increases, supply will increase. In India’s free market, when demand increases, prices will increase. Airlines will expand their routes, curtail flights on old routes and jack up prices. India will be the Vishwaguru to the world on monopolistic capitalism.”
Within hours, Chidambaram’s tweet was retweeted over 1,300 times.
Also read: India deserves to have non-stop flights to more overseas destinations: Air India CEO
Spot fares
However, a quick search for a Delhi-Chennai flight on June 19 showed that business class airfares were, in fact, in the normal range. The spot airfares ranged between ₹25,000 to ₹28,000 for a one-way business class ticket.
The search did throw up flights with airfares ranging between ₹30,000 and ₹65,000, but these were one-stop flights. A non-stop trip between Delhi and Chennai will take a maximum of 2 hours and 10 minutes. The one-stop flights with a layover, either in Mumbai or Bangalore, were higher. Flights with a longish layover taking a total time of over 24 hours were in the range mentioned by the former FM. The flight rates for June 20 and days after that ranged between ₹21,000 and ₹25,000.
However, during the past 45 days, airline prices did surge hugely, inconveniencing passengers greatly. This led to the Minister of Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia issuing stern advisories to carriers not to escalate fares. Subsequently, fares dropped 14 per cent to 50 per cent, depending on routes.
Nonetheless, airfares to destinations such as Bhubaneshwar, Leh and Srinagar continue to remain slightly elevated, burning a hole in the pockets of passengers.
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