With AI grounded, fares may soar 200%

New Delhi: With Air India hardly operating any flights till October 15, passengers this festive season are in for some hardship. Most airlines, including Air India, have been flying with a good load factor, a situation that is not likely to change till Diwali.
Now, after Air India with a seat capacity of over 35,000 suspended bookings for a fortnight, things are looking up for other airlines — however, as for passengers, not only will it be tough finding accommodation on other airlines, they will be lucky if they can afford the tickets. From January to August this year, 99,000 passengers have flown on the domestic sector and another 19,000 on the international sector by Indian carriers. Of this, AI had a share of 17% or roughly 19,000 passengers.
This season, AI's load had gone up to about 88%, with all other airlines also registering a load factor of over 80%. "This is going to be different from the Jet Airways strike since at that time, airlines were not operating on full load. Most of them had sufficient seats available to accommodate Jet passengers. However, right now, due to the festival season, there is overcapacity in many important sectors. Passengers will have a hard time getting easy bookings due to this," said an airline official.
Ankur Bhatia, executive director of Bird Group says private airlines will be able to absorb most of the excess passenger load but tickets for high-demand sectors could be sold at a premium. Prices, too, are likely to shoot through the roof. A travel agent in Connaught Place says while not much change is likely to take place at their end, prices for off-the-counter tickets could be as much as 200% higher than normal fares.
30/09/09 Saurabh Sinha & Neha Lalchandani/Times of India

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Categories: Air India Domestic Sep 2009, NACIL Sep 2009