As the number of COVID-19 cases across the country touches a new high every day, air travel has reduced over the past fortnight and airfares too have gone up.
For instance, the fare for flights to Bengaluru was ₹1,700- ₹2,000 a few months ago but now it had risen to ₹2,700 to ₹3,000. Similarly, the fares to Delhi, which were in the range of ₹4,000-₹4,500, had now touched ₹6,000 to ₹6,200. While for Hyderabad, the fares had gone up from ₹2,500 to ₹3,300 now.
Sources in the airport said the number of people travelling had reduced in the past two weeks. “The airfare increase is natural considering what we see, with restrictions and lockdown. We don’t think it will go up steeply in the coming weeks too. It may go a little lower or higher,” a source said.
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Officials of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) said the number of passengers had come down from 20,000-21,000 to 10,000-12,000 range in the past two weeks.
“In many cities, people are expected to carry a negative certificate and many do not want to travel because of this. Also, now people are getting more cautious and don’t want to expose themselves too much,” an official said.