Airfares are increasing rapidly for the upcoming festivals like Diwali, Chhath Puja and festive season. The average one-way ticket price on major domestic routes has increased by 10 to 15 percent for Diwali. On the other hand, the fares of some flights to cities in Kerala during Onam are 20-25 percent higher.
An analysis by travel portal ixigo for PTI shows that the average one-way economy class fare for direct flights on the Delhi-Chennai route rose 25 per cent to Rs 7,618 during October 30 to November 5 as compared to November 10-16 last year. Ticket prices on the Mumbai-Hyderabad route rose 21 per cent to Rs 5,162 during the same period. Fares on the Delhi-Goa and Delhi-Ahmedabad routes rose 19 per cent to Rs 5,999 and Rs 4,930, respectively.
Airfares are higher than last year
According to the analysis, fares on some other routes have increased in the range of 1-16 percent. Ixigo Group Co-CEO Rajneesh Kumar said that the demand for travel for Diwali is increasing and air fares are higher than last year. The analysis showed that air fares on some routes like Bengaluru-Hyderabad and Mumbai-Jammu are lower than last year.
Domestic air traffic rises to 1.29 crore in July
Indian airlines carried over 1.29 crore passengers in July, a rise of over 7.3 per cent year-on-year, official data released on Monday showed. However, air traffic in July was lower than in June this year, when 1.32 crore passengers flew. IndiGo continued to dominate the domestic air traffic sector and its market share rose to 62 per cent in July. On the other hand, Air India’s share declined to 14.3 per cent.
According to data from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), Vistara’s domestic market share rose to 10 percent last month. The share of AIX Connect and SpiceJet declined to 4.5 percent and 3.1 percent, respectively. In addition, the share of Akasa Air and Alliance Air fell to 4.7 percent and 0.9 percent, respectively.
DGCA said, “During January-July, 2024, domestic airlines carried 923.35 lakh passengers as against 881.94 lakh in the same period a year ago. Thus, the number of passengers registered an annual growth of 4.70 per cent and a monthly growth of 7.33 per cent.”
