With Jet Airways grounding flights temporarily due to liquidity issues, domestic and international airfares have been jacked up by other carriers to take advantage of the demand for seats in high density routes and the peak travel period.
Budget carriers and scheduled airlines have not spared those proceeding on holidays, medical emergencies in the families and the Non-Resident Keralites. Those planning last-minute flight bookings to Mumbai and Bengalaru and for various destinations in West Asia will definitely burn a hole in their pockets.
The present hike is in addition to the spike in airfares by 10 to 30 % in the last one month and close monitoring of the fares by the regulator- Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to ensure that the fares are competitive. The directive of the DGCA for the grounding of the B737 Max aircraft have also compounded the problems with the industry registering 15% impact.
Travel agents say the advance fare levels in several high density routes within the country have shot up by 25 to 30 % with the grounding of the aircraft of the Jet Airways coming at a time of peak summer vacation.
In the Thiruvananthapuram-Bengalaru sector, the temporary exit of Jet Airways is being visible with the one-way economy fare going up from ₹2,000 to ₹6,700. In Thiruvananthapuram-Mumbai sector, the fares are in the range of ₹20,000 to ₹25,000.
The crisis in the Jet Airways has resulted in fare hike and the other carriers are taking advantage for the demand for seats where the crisis ridden airline had monopoly in flight operation.
“I had to purchase a one-way economy ticket for my daughter for ₹20,000 to enable her to proceed to Mumbai this week,” says an agitated mother from the State capital. The fares had gone up and the impact will be felt in the domestic tourism sector as it is peak period of leisure travel, says leading tour operator Anish Kumar P. K.
The economy fares to Dubai that were in the range of ₹10,000 has touched ₹20,000. In the destinations in Saudi Arabia, the fares had jumped from around ₹15,000 to ₹30,000.