Government yet to act as air fares jump manifold during festive season
Successive governments’ continued failure to curb sudden – and steep – hike in air fares, especially during festivals or emergencies when demand is at its peak, has forced travellers to pay through their nose during crunch situations. The latest to suffer were commuters flying in and out of Chennai in the past 2-3 days. Due to Pongal, the air fares to the city to travel the same day had been at an all-time high. The one-way ticket between Delhi-Chennai cost up to Rs 26,000 if bought on the day of travel.
“Pongal was being celebrated in TN and people were travelling there from all parts of India, leading to a spurt in demand,” said Manoj Chacko, CEO of SOTC’s business travel vertical. Chacko said the spike in fares on certain sectors almost always happens during festive times, like for Kolkata during Durga Puja and for Mumbai during Ganesh Chaturthi. When Cyclone Vardah hit Chennai last month, Delhi-Chennai one-way fare on a non-stop flight went as high as Rs 30,000 on a low-cost carrier (LCC) and Rs 31,200 on a full-service carrier.
While successive aviation ministers tried to tackle the issue, they met with little success. The problem of spot fares shooting up stems from the fact that airlines have different fare buckets with a certain number of seats allocated to each of them. As seats on a flight get sold, fares for available seats move to the higher levels. In crunch times, people are buying the last few seats which are sold for the highest price. Aviation minister Jayant Sinha said, “The DGCA as an airline regulator, ensures airfares reflect natural market dynamics in line with the best global practices and does not entail anti-competitive or anti-market behaviour.”
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