Kochi: Air fares soar, hit tourism industry

Kochi: Air fares to various destinations, especially to the Gulf countries, have shot up with the withdrawal of Jet Airways flights. The tourism industry has also been hit with many cancelling their planned trips altogether.

The airline accounted for 42 weekly flights in the international sector and 28 in the domestic sector from the Cochin International Airport (CIAL).

“The demand and supply theory will result in price escalation as they operated many flights from here. The travellers have no way other than to choose the available options,” said A.C.K. Nair, CIAL director.

The airfares in the Kochi-Dubai and the Kochi-Doha sectors have nearly doubled to over Rs 30,000 (for the next few weeks). “Earlier we could easily fly for Rs 8000-Rs 10,000 to Dubai by booking the flight one or two weeks in advance. Now the fares have doubled,” said Appu Narayan of Thrissur.

The fares to cities like Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai too have gone up. For instance, the lowest fare in the Cochin-Bangalore sector on April 22 is Rs 7,773. Except for midnight flights, the average fare is around Rs 8,000 and no ‘offer’ is being provided by the airlines as before.

Many tourists, especially NRKs, who had booked tickets in advance have cancelled their programmes, affecting the tourism sector.

“With the Jet curtailing its services, they were forced to look for other flight options all of a sudden. But most flights are heavily booked for the vacation period and the cost difference is substantially high.

For instance, one of our clients availed of tickets to Vancouver, Canada, for Rs 80, 000 per head in Jet. Now the fare in other flights to the sector is above Rs 2 lakh and they have cancelled the trip as it was out of their budget,” said Paulose K. Mathew, chairman (Kerala Chapter), Travel Agents Federation of India.

Meanwhile, the domestic travellers are increasingly depending on rail and road modes. No ticket is available on most routes on long-haul trains while the fares have skyrocketed in services like Hamsafar and Duronto Express trains in which dynamic ticket pricing is followed.

For instance, the third AC fare in Ernakulam-Lokmanya Tilak Duronto Express on April 24 crossed Rs 3,100 and second AC Rs 4,200.