June 12, 2018 TnH Global 2

Airlines yet to remove dynamic pricing on tickets for Surat passengers

While the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has commissioned the full-length runway at Surat airport, airlines operating at Surat airport are yet to remove dynamic fare system for passengers flying to and from the Diamond City.

The dynamic fare system was prevalent at the airport as the airlines were taking load penalty of 20 per cent. They were unable to fly full aircraft and forced to leave some seats empty due to the non-commissioning of the full-length runway at Surat airport by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

If suppose Air India is operating Airbus 319 between Surat and Delhi having a total of 140 seats, it could accommodate only 106 passengers due load penalty, which is aimed at ensuring safe take-off at short runways.

The actual runway length at the city’s airport was extended from 2,250 metre to 2,905 metre. However, the airlines operating from Surat airport could make use of only 1,905 metre of runway, pending approval of 185 metre of completed patch of runway, and 615 metre runway having been displaced by DGCA due to building height obstruction at Vesu.

Following DGCA’s approval for the operation of 2,290 metre runway from Vesu-end and the full-length of 2,905 runway from Dumas-end, the AAI commissioned the runway on June 6 with revised specifications for visual and night landing.

“Since the airlines are not allowed to operate on full passenger capacity due to load penalty, they had this dynamic pricing system. Passengers booking at the last moment will have to cough up more fare than the actual one. We request the airlines to remove the dynamic pricing system as load penalty is over at Surat airport,” Right To Information (RTI) activist Rajesh Modi said.

“The AAI recently commissioned the full-length runway at Surat airport. Our online booking system will take some time to revise the destination fares,” a private airline official said.

Commercial head of AirAsia India Kiran Jain indicated after the successful Bengaluru-Surat flight that the airline planned to connect more cities with the Diamond City. Navsari MP C R Paatil met Jain in New Delhi on Friday and discussed about the potential routes. AirAsia’s commercial head stated that the airlines will be shortly commencing flights connecting Surat with Kolkata, Delhi, Varanasi and Patna.