Domestic airfares have firmed up by 30 per cent, thanks to this Diwali weekend.
“As airfares operate on a dynamic bucket system and increase as demand increases, fares in the domestic sector have firmed up by around 30 per cent on high demand during the long Diwali weekend,” said Sabina Chopra, co-founder of yatra.com, a travel portal.
“Many of the major routes like Delhi to Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Chennai are seeing the maximum increase in fares. Many feeder routes like Delhi-Nagpur, Lucknow-Nagpur, among others, are also seeing 25 per cent increase.”
Many short-haul international destinations are also witnessing fares firming up by 20 per cent, as people are opting for these destinations to enjoy the long weekend. These short-haul international destinations include Bangkok, Dubai, Singapore and Malaysia.
“Because of the long weekend, many people are going out to international tourism destinations, which has firmed up fares in these routes by around 20 per cent,” said Ajay Prakash, president, Travel Agents Federation of India.
He also said, “The average domestic fare, compared to the same period last year, is also up by 12 per cent, a clear cut sign of improvement in the aviation sector and more revenues for the airlines.”
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This increase in fares will act as a booster for airlines, which are continuously adding capacity. In the first six months of this year, domestic airlines increased the total number of seats available daily to 175,000 from 115,000.
Majority of these additions came from the low-cost carriers — IndiGo, SpiceJet and GoAir. All the three have plans to add 40 aircraft in the coming one and a half year.
Airlines say the passenger numbers are good and they see a good traction in the third quarter. “The passenger numbers are good and we are seeing decent increase in our occupancy,” said an executive of a low-cost carrier, who did not want to be identified.