There have been persistent concerns about high airfares, especially during peak and festival seasons. | Representative image
Airfares are heading north for the festival season, with the average one-way ticket price on key domestic routes being 10-15 per cent higher for Diwali and 20-25 per cent higher for certain flights to Kerala cities for Onam, according to an analysis.
An analysis by travel portal ixigo for PTI showed that the average one-way economy class fare for a non-stop flight on the Delhi-Chennai route during the period from October 30 to November 5 is 25 per cent higher at Rs 7,618.
This is compared to the rate during the period from November 10 to 16 last year.
For the given comparison period, the ticket price is 21 per cent higher, at Rs 5,162 on the Mumbai-Hyderabad route and 19 per cent higher, at Rs 5,999 and Rs 4,930 on the Delhi-Goa and Delhi-Ahmedabad routes, respectively.
On other routes, fares are higher, between 1 and 16 percent, according to the analysis.
Rajnish Kumar, co-CEO of ixigo group, said travel demand for Diwali is increasing and airfares are higher than last year.
“Popular routes like Delhi-Chennai, Mumbai-Bengaluru and Delhi-Hyderabad have average one-way fares ranging between Rs 4,000 and 5,000, marking a year-on-year increase of 10 to 15 per cent as the festival approaches,” he said.
On the other hand, fares have also fallen by between 1 percent and 27 percent on certain routes during the given comparison period.
While the ticket price for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad flight has dropped by 27 per cent to Rs 2,508, the drop is 25 per cent to Rs 4,890 for the Mumbai-Udaipur flight.
In case of Bengaluru-Hyderabad flight, the fare was reduced by 23 per cent to Rs 3,383 and by 21 per cent to Rs 7,826 for Mumbai-Jammu flight, the analysis showed.
Additionally, an analysis of airfare trends on selected routes for the upcoming festival in Kerala showed that prices have increased in the range of 1 per cent to 25 per cent on certain routes.
At the same time, ticket prices have fallen by between 6 and 35 percent on some routes.
The figures are the average one-way fare for non-stop flights departing during the period of September 6-15 this year as compared to the period of August 20-29, 2023, when Onam was celebrated.
A 30 per cent increase has been recorded in the fare for the Hyderabad-Thiruvananthapuram flight during the given comparison period. A similar increase is recorded for the Mumbai-Calicut flight at Rs 4,448.
“Travel demand for Onam festivities has increased this year, with flight bookings and travel searches to Kerala in the second week of September doubling compared to last year. Average airfares to key cities like Cochin, Calicut and Thiruvananthapuram have increased by 20-25 per cent year-on-year,” Rajnish Kumar said.
There have been persistent concerns about high airfare prices, especially during peak and festival seasons.
In this context, Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu told Lok Sabha earlier this month that the ministry was planning to introduce an online mechanism to address complaints and ensure that passengers were not exploited with unnecessary fare hikes.
Under current regulations, air fares are not set or regulated by the government following the repeal of the Airline Corporations Act in March 1994.
Last month, the ministry told Rajya Sabha that airlines have been advised to self-regulate and have been sensitised to exercise restraint in air ticket prices.
(Only the headline and image of this report may have been reworked by Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
First published: August 19, 2024 | 17:01 IS
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