Air fares on a high as travel picks up, aviation turbine fuel price spikes

Be prepared to shell out more for your next flight as airlines have hiked fares by anything from 12 to 30 per cent, depending on routes.

Improved travel sentiment, increase in aviation turbine fuel prices and reciprocal airspace ban due to the Russian attack on Ukraine are factors driving up the fares. So, a Delhi-Mumbai ticket, which cost Rs 4,055 during the first week of February, was priced at Rs 5,119 over the past seven days. Kolkata-New Delhi route saw an even higher increase, with ticket prices going up by as much as 29.3 per cent. Popular international routes such as Mumbai-Dubai and Delhi-Dubai too witnessed significantly higher fares during the same period.

“With the relaxation in Covid-19 restrictions and countries lifting travel bans, we have witnessed a wave of optimism amongst travellers leading to increase in demand and booking inquiries,’’ said a Yatra.com spokesperson. Owing to the hike in fuel prices, there has been an average increase of around 20 per cent in fares across all domestic and international routes, according to travel companies.

The government has set minimum and maximum fares for domestic flights and these are applicable for up to a fortnight. For bookings beyond 15 days, airlines are free to set their own fares.

A senior executive of a private airline said fares had improved for travel beyond 15 days. The airlines have seen an increase in forward bookings and demand too is holding up. “We have our fingers crossed,” he said.

Domestic air travel saw an uptick in February after a 42.7 per cent month-on-month decline. However, ATF price is up 57 per cent on a year on year basis as of March and with crude oil projected to trade around $ 100 a barrel for three months, airline fuel expenses will see a spike.

According to ixigo co-founder and group CEO Aloke Bajpai, international fares on routes like India to US and Canada have been impacted due to restrictions around Russian airspace which is resulting in rerouting of flights.

United has temporarily suspended its Newark-Mumbai and San Francisco-Delhi flights while Air Canada flights from Delhi to Montreal and Toronto are taking a technical halt in Dublin.

“Airfares across popular domestic destinations in India have seen an average increase of 10-15 per cent towards the beginning of March as compared to the same time last month,” he added.

“We have seen an average month-on-month increase of 35-40 per cent in travel search queries   in March to popular leisure destinations like Goa, Port Blair, Amritsar, Varanasi, Srinagar and Andaman & Nicobar," Bajpai said.

Countries too are relaxing their entry restrictions with a declining number of Covid-19 cases and that has improved travel sentiment too.

On Friday, Singapore announced an extension of its vaccinated travel lane flights to cover all its eight destinations in India. This will allow quarantine free entry for passengers from all the eight cities. At present, VTL flights are being operated only to Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai. Singapore Airlines will operate Airbus A380 aircraft to Mumbai from March 14, it said.

“We continue to see strong demand across India from customers who are waiting to enjoy convenient and quarantine-free travel to Singapore,” said SY Yen Chen, general manager, Singapore Airlines.

The Australian High Commission on Friday said it is seeing a bounce back in Indian visa applications to the 2019 level after opening borders on February 22.

“With the ICC T20 Cricket World Cup fast approaching, Australia is gearing up to ensure our visa processing is as fast and convenient as possible.Due to increased demand,  everyone is strongly encouraged to lodge their applications well in advance,” the Australian High Commission said.