Airfares on certain routes are up by 30-45 per cent higher during Diwali on a year on year basis led by higher demand.
While last year, at the same time, airlines were allowed to operate at 70 per cent capacity, the government has now withdrawn the capacity caps. Also, last November daily traffic was less than 50 per cent of pre-Covid times, now it has increased to 70-75 per cent. Increased occupancy coupled with upward revision in fare bands by the government has translated into higher fares during the festive season.
According to data compiled by travel portal ixigo, average one way economy class fares top ten booked routes including Mumbai-Delhi and Mumbai-Kolkata are 30 per cent higher year on year while those on Bengaluru-Kolkata and New Delhi-Kolkata are 40 per cent and 45 per cent higher respectively. However, fares on Delhi-Patna and Bengaluru-Patna routes are 25 per cent lower on a year on year basis.
Availability of a large number of trains, compared to last year, could be a factor for drop in fares to Patna. The fares used for comparison are 20-25 days before Diwali.
“Excitement for the festive season is at its peak and we have observed an increase in bookings for travellers who are heading home or planning a leisure getaway for Diwali holidays. With international destinations easing Covid-19 policies and protocols we expect demand for leisure travel to shoot up further for the new year,” said Aloke Bajpai, group CEO and co-founder of ixigo.
Domestic airlines flew 327,923 passengers on Sunday – the highest since resumption of air travel last May. Rapid vaccination and easing of state wide restrictions has been fuelling month on month traffic growth.
While demand is looking strong, cost pressure is rising too. “Airline turbine fuel price is nearly double on a year on year basis and fare hikes are much lower in comparison,” an industry executive said.
“Growing travel confidence has also resulted in a shift in advance purchase pattern trends. Share of bookings for travel beyond 30 days has increased in October, indicating pre-planned advance purchase behaviour which had become last-minute purchase behaviour during the pandemic,” Bajpai added.
According to Indiviver Rastogi, group head (global business travel), Thomas Cook & SOTC, holiday queries have increased by over 5x due to strong pent up demand for travel. “Hence it is not surprising that airfares too are seeing an increase but at a more moderate level of 10-20 per cent primarily to top leisure routes like Jaipur, Port Blair, Goa, Srinagar and Kochi. We do expect to see a rationalisation of pricing with the government’s approval for an increase in capacity to hundred per cent,” he said.
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