Domestic flight tickets get costlier amid festive season

 

Airfares for domestic travel have shot through the roof, almost doubling on key metro routes, amid a surge in demand ahead of a long Diwali weekend this year.

Airfares for domestic travel have shot through the roof, almost doubling on key metro routes, amid a surge in demand ahead of a long Diwali weekend this year.

According to people familiar with the matter, the surge in pricing has not deterred travellers and a rush of bookings has left very few seats for last minute sales.

While a non-stop round trip between India’s most popular route, Mumbai and Delhi, usually costs ₹12,000, the fares touched ₹23,000 on Wednesday, ahead of Diwali on October 24.

A one-way ticket to Mumbai from Delhi on October 21 (Friday) was going for ₹12,000 - ₹29,000 on Wednesday. A one-way ticket from Delhi to Bengaluru was going for ₹8,000 - ₹25,500. The fares for October 22 were ₹12,000 - ₹19,500 and ₹7000 - ₹22,000 on the same routes.

According to various travel portals, ticket prices are high till the middle of next week.

“The festive rush has resulted in a 20-25% increase in fares for flights plying between Delhi and Mumbai,” EaseMyTrip co-founder Rikant Pittie said.

After Mumbai-Delhi, flights between Delhi and Patna, and Mumbai and Patna were found to be the most expensive on Wednesday. Airline officials attributed the rush to Patna to Chhath Puja which will be celebrated on October 30.

A round trip between October 21 and 31 from Delhi to Patna was going for ₹25,000 on Thursday.

“Diwali followed by Chhath puja on October 30 has led to an increase in airfares along these routes,” a domestic airline official said, seeking anonymity.

“While flights between Delhi and Allahabad, and Mumbai and Bengaluru also appeared to be in demand, bookings for destinations like Jaipur have also seen a surge,” the official added

Airlines claimed most of their scheduled flights to Delhi on Friday were already nearly full.

On Wednesday, another travel portal Make My Trip offered only three flights for travel from Mumbai to Delhi. Yatra.com offered 10 flights.

“Besides visiting friends and relatives (VFR) travel, people are also utilising this long break for leisure travel,” another airline official said, also seeking anonymity.

On Thursday, the prices for a non-stop flight from Delhi to Goa on Saturday varied from ₹8,200 to ₹27,000. The price for a ticket from Mumbai to Goa during the same day varied from ₹5,000 to ₹21,000.

Travel portals claimed the surge was higher this year than last year, possibly due to removal of Covid-19 restrictions and the cap on pricing by the Union government.

“Compared to last year, we saw an increase of 80-90% in searches on our platform this year. People are eager to travel. There has been an increase in flight bookings despite a surge in pricing,” Pittie said.

Bharatt Malik, senior vice president (flights) at Yatra.com, added almost all flights along major routes are entirely booked.

“The festive season this year has witnessed an exponential increase in travel after a two-year hiatus. People are either traveling back home or to different destinations to celebrate festivities with their friends, family and close ones. This spike in travel demand has directly impacted airfares and we, at Yatra.com, are seeing fully-booked flights on major routes,” Malik said.

“While airfares across certain metro routes have dropped by 16-18% in comparison to 2019, there is a significant rise of about 17-20% in comparison to 2021,” he said, referring to routes such as Delhi-Bengaluru and Delhi-Mumbai.

Airfares along non-metro routes have recorded a notable increase of 26% as compared to 2019 and 6-8% in comparison to 2021, he added.