Rs 21,000 to fly from Delhi to Ahmedabad: Why are airfares in India soaring?

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Have plans to fly within India? Book your air tickets asap. Airfares have been soaring over the past month, especially spot purchases – tickets booked on the spot or 24 hours before taking the flight.

Spot airfares for five out of six of the busiest routes have seen a big rise – three times in the past month. A 24-hour advance purchase on domestic fares flying out of Delhi and Mumbai is exorbitant.

On India’s busiest air route, from Delhi to Mumbai, the average spot airfare on 1 June was Rs 18,654, Business Standard reports quoting data provided by the online travel portal Ixigo. On 1 May, the average spot airfare on this route was Rs 6125.

While last-moment tickets are always expensive, what is surprising is the big jump. The cheapest flight from Mumbai to Kochi was Rs 20,000 for 1 June.

The spot airfare ticket from Delhi to Kolkata has seen a rise of 73 per cent in the past month and from Delhi to Pune has jumped by 214 per cent. A ticket on this route cost Rs 5,469 on 1 May and Rs 17,200 on 1 June, according to Ixigo.

While the tickets booked 30 days in advance have also increased, the prices are not so steep. The average price of tickets on the Delhi-Mumbai route in June is Rs 5,475, which is 8.85 per cent than in April, the Business Standard report says.

So what has changed for domestic airlines? A lot.

The Go First bankruptcy

The domestic airlines market is competitive and on 2 May, Go First, India’s third-largest carrier, suspended operations and filed for bankruptcy before the National Company Tribunal. The airline’s decision has a wider impact on the domestic aviation sector and flyers are now feeling the pinch.

There has been an upset in the demand and supply with Go First not in the picture. The airline was to operate more than 1,500 flights weekly between April and October. Now those who had booked Go First tickets are scrambling to book a seat on other airlines. With a rise in demand, the prices have gone up.

The absence of a major airline from the skies comes at a time that sees a lot of travel since several schools in India are shut for their annual summer break.

“…May end and early June see a jump in demand as vacationers return in time for school reopening. This is the first time post-pandemic that we’ve seen the demand spike,” an airline official told The Times of India (ToI).

Go First suspended operations and filed for bankruptcy last month and this as led to a demand-supply problem. File photo/Reuters

Those who booked advance seats on GoFirst flights are left with no choice but to make last-minute bookings on other available airlines. “This has shot up the spot airfares, especially on routes where Go First had a sizable presence,” another airline executive was quoted as saying by Business Standard.

Several passengers have taken to Twitter on vent. A frequent flyer Shruti Chaturvedi said she paid Rs 21,000 for an Indigo flight from Delhi to Ahmedabad.

Another passenger Rohit Verma wrote on Twitter that he paid Rs 20,000 for a one-way ticket from Delhi to Bengaluru.

Scindia steps in

But how long will this continue? The steep prices have caught the attention of the government with Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia stepping in. On Monday, he asked airlines to “self-monitor” prices on a few routes, especially those affected by the suspension of Go First flights.

The minister held an hour-long meeting with the Airlines Advisory Groups and shared concerns over reports of “abnormal surge pricing on certain routes”.

“Airlines must self-monitor airfares on certain select routes that have seen considerable surge pricing of late, particularly those that were earlier being serviced by Go First… A mechanism for ensuring reasonable pricing within the high RBDs (reservation booking designator) may be devised by airlines. This shall be monitored by the DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation),” the Ministry of Civil Aviation said in a statement. RBDs are slabs used by airlines as part of their revenue management practice.

Last week, Scindia said that the unexpected demand-supply imbalance led to the surge in domestic airfares.

The demand for tickets have increased as this is summer travel season. File photo/Reuters

The civil aviation ministry did not specify the routes most hit by the fare surge but according to industry insiders, the most affected routes are the connecting major cities to Leh, Srinagar, Goa, Bagdogra, Ahmedabad, and Pune, reports The Indian Express. Some of these routes have seen a rise of 50 to 80 per cent in the last months, especially popular summer destinations.

After the Odisha train tragedy on Friday, several airlines decided to cash in and increase airfares. The airline to ticket prices to cities such as Bengaluru, Bhubaneshwar, Kolkata, Vizag, Hyderabad, and Chennai more than doubled despite an advisory from the civil aviation ministry.

Scindia also told airlines to keep a “tight check” on airfares during calamities and take a humanitarian view. He advised them to provide free cargo services to the families of those who lost their lives in the Odisha train accident.

With inputs from agencies

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