Air Fares Skyrocket During Festive Season

Vijayawada:Air fares of several airlines have skyrocketed during the festive season from October to January – as is evident from Vijayawada airport to major domestic destinations.

Festival season is when people who are staying away from their home for work, study or business come to their native places for the celebrations with their family members.

Given the huge demand for flights to reach home early, several airlines have jacked up ticket prices by 10 to 30 per cent, or more.

Air fares for several airlines from Oct 11 to Jan 13 -- a day before the Sankranti festival -- from Vijayawada to Delhi are as follows. IndiGo fare remains unchanged at `7,078 per ticket while Air India fares have gone up in two flights from `7,120 to `10,485 and from `7,345 to `10,854.

From Vijayawada to Mumbai, IndiGo charges `4,045 for both days while Air India charges `4,300 and `5,145.

From Vijayawada to Hyderabad, IndiGo operates seven flights charging in the range of `2,807-`4,515 on Oct 11. It operates six flights by charging ` 2,387 to `3,500 on January 13. Air India Express charges `2,500 on October 11 and `4,894 on January 13.

From Vijayawada to Chennai, Indigo operates two flights, charging `4,801 and `4,066 with slight dip in charge.

From Vijayawada to Bengaluru, IndiGo operates four flights with ticket prices in the range of `3,700-3,910 while Air India Express charges `3,701 on Oct 11. On Jan 13, IndiGo charges in the range of `3,700-6,115 while Air India Express charges `3,701.

Air passengers agree it is quite common for a rise in prices of air tickets during the festival season due to the heavy rush, but say there must be a mechanism to avoid more financial burden on them.

AP air travellers association president Kumar Raja said, “As IndiGo is enjoying monopoly in flight operations to various destinations in AP, it is game enhancing the ticket price. We need to have multiple players in each sector, so that the airlines will offer competitive prices benefitting the travellers. I used to spend `6,000-7,000 to go to Hyderabad from Visakhapatnam and return. Now, I am spending `10,000 for both ways, showing a marginal rise in the price of air tickets.”

Some airlines have begun charging double or more for stopover bookings due to the high demand for tickets on certain routes, such as Hyderabad to Visakhapatnam, where fares reached ` 10,000 on Thursday.

Vijayawada international airport director Lakshmi Kanth Reddy responded, “Except for full occupancy of flights by the passengers travelling to various destinations, we are not having any huge rush of air passengers. All are scheduled flights and we are handling the situation without causing any inconvenience to the passengers.”

On the railway front, South Central Railway’s Vijayawada division is running 17 special trains for Dasara festival and these would make 116 trips from Vijayawada to several destinations by charging 1.3 times more than the normal fare.