Air fare woes hit Mumbai

Mumbai: It has taken about a decade for air travel to come a full circle in India.
A Mumbai-Delhi ticket sold in the range of Rs 7,000 about a decade back. That figure looks like it has crawled back into the Indian economy-class flier’s calculations. And, with the principal factor behind this retro-trend — the rising price of aviation turbine fuel (ATF) — looking like it is here to stay, it may not be long before Indian airports stop sporting that come-all, fly-all very democratic look. “The effect may be felt in the next couple of months with a fall of around 15 per cent in passenger traffic. Short sectors, like flights from Mumbai to Gujarat destinations, will suffer most. Fares have gone up by almost 50 per cent in the last four months,’’ Travel Agents’ Association of India (TAAI) secretary Anoop Kanuga said.
The aviation industry has watched with dismay the northward march of ATF prices over the last few months. A litre of ATF cost Rs 21 in 2004. It now hovers around the Rs-70 mark (Rs 69.27 for a litre in Delhi and Rs 71.75 in Mumbai). There is some respite only in Hyderabad, where sales tax was slashed to 4 per cent in March and ATF now sells at approximately Rs 57 a litre.
All this spells bad news for the aviation industry.
But this is a global phenomenon; the hike in ATF cost has changed air-travel dynamics in every economy as fuel price is the sole factor that controls air-travel affordability. Bhutan’s national airline, Druk Air, has cut its frequency on many routes, including those to Delhi and Kolkata, and even thriving destinations like Las Vegas in the US have started feeling the heat.
21/06/08 Manju V/Times of India

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General Jun 2008