Ahead of festivals, air fares soar on demand

Patna: The steep rise in the airfare is a hard pill to swallow for the Bihar natives, who are planning round-trip to their hometown for the upcoming festivals. The flight ticket prices have soared two months ahead of the festivities and are now available almost at double rates than the normal ones on key routes amid a surge in demand ahead of Durga Puja, Diwali and Chhath.Santosh Gupta, a travel agent on Exhibition Road said he receives over 45 enquiries every day for the booking of flight tickets for round-trip on domestic routes like Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad. “The airfares ahead of the festive season have gone up by almost 110% in comparison to the normal days. Surging demand and capacity constraints, among others, are forcing flyers to pay through their nose for the air tickets,” he said. Many people, who could not find a seat in trains, and won’t be able to spend more time in travel, are looking for air tickets. The high rates have irked the passengers. Social media platforms are flooded with consumers complaining about surge in prices of the air tickets.Ankit Prince, who was planning to visit his home town in Patna said, “The ministry of civil aviation (MOCA) should keep a check on prices for flights to Patna, especially around Diwali and Chhath Puja. Around Rs 20,000 for one way journey between Mumbai and Patna is too much. It is almost 2.5 times more than the average price. There should be a price cap and more flights should be deployed on this route.”Tanu Chandra also requested the MOCA to keep a check on soaring flight prices through the social media platform. “Airfare is unnaturally high during peak festive season of Diwali and Chhath Puja for flights originating/terminating from/to Patna. The surge in price should be regulated by imposing a price cap,” she posted on social media.Vivek Kumar, a travel agent on Boring Road, said tickets for flights between Mumbai and Patna are available at Rs 21,000 for direct flight, Rs 16,000 for Ahmedabad flight, Rs 11,000 for Lucknow, Rs 12,000 for Chandigarh, 12,500 for Hyderabad, Rs 10,000 for Delhi and Rs 15,000 for Bengaluru ahead of Diwali. “Every year, the situation is similar during the festival time, especially during Holi and Diwali,” he said.Another travel agent, Gaurav Ojha, said the other reason for rise in airfare is the limited number of flights operating to and from Patna. “SpiceJet is operating only one flight from Patna due to operational reasons, which was around three-four last year, while Air India has only three flights, while that of Go First are grounded. Only IndiGo has 27 flights. The number of flights on several destinations is also reduced, including Mumbai,” he said.