Flight prices sky rocket over Dussehra weekend

Panaji: The airfare to and from Goa to major cities in the country have shot through the roof for the upcoming long weekend. The weekend begins with the Dussehra holiday on September 30 and ends with Gandhi Jayanti, the following Monday.

Tickets on Goa-Chennai route on October 2 will cost four times the regular fare at Rs 13,500. The usual fare to Chennai from the state is around Rs 4,000.

A rush of tourists is expected from Hyderabad as well, as airfare has touched Rs 10,000 for October 2, as against the regular fare, which usually skirts the Rs 3,000 mark. Bus fare from Hyderabad to Goa on September 29 has also increased to Rs 3,500 for an air-conditioned bus, which is an all-time high, bus operators said. "The fare usually goes up to Rs 2,700 or at the most Rs 3,000," said the operator.

Hotel owners said that most holidayers appear to have planned their Goa break at short notice as the bookings for rooms began flooding in only last week.

"Most of Calangute is almost sold out. Our hotel is sold out till October 2. Bookings have come in over the last week and, especially in Calangute and Baga, bookings have come in just this week," said operations manager Narayan Reddy for Neelam Grand Hotel in Calangute.

Bengaluru and Mumbai are the other destinations where the tickets will cost unusually more during the Dussehra weekend.

Airfares stand around Rs 9,000 to and from Bengaluru while the price usually goes below Rs 2,000.

The fare from Goa to Mumbai is Rs 7,412 on October 2, up from the regular fare of around Rs, 1,700.

Flights to Delhi and Kolkata have not seen much price rise in an indication of the tourist inflow expected from these cities.

(With inputs from Newton Sequeira and Nida Sayed)