Plane truth: Train fare hike fuels flight demand

CHANDIGARH: Planning a trip out of city with your family or friends, and yet to book flight tickets? If yes, hurry and book them before June 25. The hike in railway fare has raised the demand for low-cost carrier flights. City residents, having compared the air and railway prices, have not only chosen the most viable option but saved themselves a lot of hassle.
"I received a lot of queries with regards to travelling to destinations like Ladakh, Goa and Srinagar. Thanks to one of the promotional schemes offered by a private airline, I booked two tickets for my clients from Chandigarh to Srinagar costing Rs 3,400 per head for a round trip. To take the same trip by train, they would have first had to go to Jammu and then travel to Srinagar which would have costed them around Rs 7,500 to and fro, besides a lot of inconvenience," said Sahitya Singh, manager of Cox and Kings, a travel agency in Sector 8.
Although the train fare is more stable than the air fare, travellers avoid the risk of spoiling their plans in case the tickets don't get confirmed. "Many of my clients prefer travelling by air instead of train because of uncertainty of their waiting tickets getting confirmed. Getting a tatkal ticket booked is a costly affair and in most of the cases the fare is almost equal to that of an air ticket," said Reena Dhiman, ticketing manager of a travel agency in Sector 12.