Steep fares lead to drop in small-town flyers

New Delhi: Air travel is fast getting out of reach for relatively small town Indians.
According to Airport Authority of India's (AAI) latest figures, April 2008 saw lesser number of people flying from places like Goa, Patna, Thiruvananthapuram, Guwahati, Calicut, Srinagar and even tourist hotspots like Udaipur, Jammu and Jodhpur over same period last year.
On a national basis, the growth rate of domestic passengers this year has fallen to single digit, down from the heady 30% to 40% figures recorded in past three years.
While this growth was largely due to airlines offering attractive fares, the drop in passenger flow was as high as 35% in Jodhpur or 24.5% in Jammu. These figures have the alarm bells ringing as the steep hike in jet fuel prices — which have led to sharp increase in airfares — started only in April and the fall in flyers could get much worse for later months.
Till April, fuel surcharge on each ticket was Rs 1,650. Now the same surcharge is between Rs 2,250 and Rs 2,900 and base fares are also much higher, making flying a fancy for many.
02/07/08 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General Jul 2008