Low-cost domestic carriers raise airfares on busy routes

New Delhi: Crippled by financial setbacks and a dip in revenues, domestic air carriers have more than doubled the fares on select metro routes ahead of a long festive season, as compared to the fares four months ago. While a Delhi-Mumbai one-way ticket priced at the lowest fare cost around Rs 2,300 in August this year, it has more than doubled to Rs 4,900 now, if booked 10 days in advance.
All the five low-cost carriers — Go Air, Indigo, SpiceJet, JetLite (erstwhile Air Sahara), Kingfisher Red (erstwhile Air Deccan) — are charging upwards of Rs 4,500 one-way to connect any two of the four major metro cities. Flyers will have to shell out around Rs 5,700 as one-way fare from Delhi to Bangalore, which used to cost around Rs 2,500 four months ago. Similarly, the Delhi-Chennai one-way fare totals to around Rs 5,400 now as compared to Rs 2,900 four months ago.
Aviation experts say that the recent hike could be explained by multiple factors which have affected the airline industry. “Airlines have posted significant losses recently; now they are trying to maximise the recoveries by hiking fares on metro routes that have high load factors,” said Kapil Arora, partner (advisory services), Ernst and Young Pvt Ltd. The pricing that was adopted by domestic carriers till a few months ago, said Arora, was highly irrational and was even below cost.
07/12/09 Smita Aggarwal/Indian Express