Air tickets rise 70% in festive season

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With a paucity of a minimum of 200 seats in every sector due to non-operation of Kingfisher Airlines, cost of air ticket have skyrocketed by about 70 per cent this festive season.

Industry experts say that the prices will stay high until new aircraft are inducted. On Friday, a family from Pallavaram had to attend the funeral of their relative in New Delhi, however, with the ticket prices at Rs 19,500 per passenger, only four of them took the flight and two had to stay back.

“I saw them running from one counter to another enquiring about the ticket costs. They had only about Rs 1 lakh with them. So finally, they decided to buy four tickets and keep the remaining Rs 20,000 for their expenses in Delhi,” said a person at Chennai airport. “This year people started moving out of the city by Friday though Diwali is on Tuesday’s, as most offices and establishments were closed on Monday,” said Akbar Holidays South & East India business head Abdul Khalieq.

“The fares are very high. They have doubled and in certain cases even trebled. This type of demand is always witnessed during holiday season. This time, the absence of Kingfisher Airlines has added to the costs,” said P. Sarav­anan, chairman, southern region, Travel Agents Association of India.
He added that senior citizens and elders were the worst affected, as they were forced to travel by air as they were unable to get confirmed train tickets.

On Monday, when the rates were lower than on Friday, a Chennai-Delhi one-way fare was selling at Rs 9,500 while on an ordinary day, it would have cost only Rs 5,000.

Similarly, the Chennai-Mumbai sector tickets were selling at Rs 7,500 as against the normal fare of Rs 4,500. Even tickets for Chennai-Ben­galuru route were selling at Rs 4,500 as against the usual fare of Rs 2,800.