Flight fares soar, Bengaluru-Mumbai sector worst hit

BENGALURU: Domestic and international airfares have surged for the months of April and May owing to scores of Jet Airways flights getting cancelled.
Among popular domestic routes, the maximum increase has been recorded on Bengaluru-Mumbai, Bengaluru-Hyderabad and Bengaluru-Delhi routes in April, according to figures provided by online travel agents.

While domestic airfares for services from Benglauru have gone up by nearly 18% this April as compared to the same period in 2018, international fares have shown a 52% jump, show statistics provided by travel agent Ixigo.

The rise in fares was most pronounced between Bengaluru and Mumbai (29%), followed by Bengaluru and Hyderabad (25%) and Bengaluru and Kolkata (20%), according to Ixigo.

“Sharp reduction in capacity over the past two months has led to an increase in fares for April by 19% and 36% and 18% for flights originating from Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru respectively as compared to the same time last year. Plane inductions by airlines and announcement of new international flights from sectors like Mumbai will hopefully bring down flight cancellations and help capacity expansion before the peak summer travel season,” said Aloke Bajpai, CEO & co-founder, Ixigo.

Abhishek Rajan, vice-president, Paytm, and head of the company’s travel unit, pointed out how an analysis of fares between May 1 and May 15 for both 2018 and 2019 has shown a 27% increase on the Bengaluru-Pune route and 21.4% on the Bengaluru-Mumbai route between May 16 and May 31, 2019 as compared to 2018.

“Fares have increased by 14% on an average for domestic routes in May in comparison to last summer. Key routes like Benglauru to Mumbai/Delhi/Pune have seen a significant increase in prices,” Rajan said.

For passengers travelling from Bengaluru, fares are expected to go up further with the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) hiking user development fee (UDF) by nearly 120% with effect from April 16.