International airfares soar as Jet Airways wobbles

NEW DELHI: For the past two months, Joel Fernandes (name changed on request) and his wife have been counting days to leave on a Scottish holiday this summer. They had bought Mumbai-London-Mumbai tickets on Jet Airways and were supposed to leave on Monday. But now with the flight cancelled, Fernandes is wondering what to do as he had paid for his stay and internal travel, and made other bookings in the UK.
“Jet is not responding. If nothing works out, I may have to cancel this ticket and buy a new one at an exorbitant spot fare,” Fernandes said. Like this couple, there are thousands of flyers who have booked Jet’s international flights and have now been left in the lurch.

While the airline has so far said it is not operating international flights till Monday, a question mark hangs on its survival. Jet’s three slots at London’s Heathrow airport have been returned to the company’s estranged partner Etihad. With UK hosting the ICC world cup this summer and expecting a surge in travel from cricket-crazed India, the cancellation of UK flights could not have come at a worse time.


“Air France and KLM are trying to accommodate Jet’s passengers of its cancelled flights to Amsterdam and Paris. Etihad may or may not accept our passengers. While some clarity in the airline’s future may emerge on Monday, passengers who are leaving early next week may consider cancelling Jet tickets, seeking a refund and buying new tickets on other airlines,” said a Jet official.

The crisis has led to a rise in international fares in some sectors. Talking about the impact, travel portal Yatra’s COO Sharat Dhall said: “Fares to Europe and North America are about 10-15% higher than they were last summer. However, other key India outbound sectors are not seeing a significant increase, with fares to Asia and the Middle East being almost flat as compared to last year. Fares to the UK have started rising and are already over 36% higher for travelling there on June 1 (close to the beginning of the cricket world cup) than they were at the same time last year.”