Airfares skyrocket with Durga Puja home rush

Kolkata: Surajit Dey landed in Kolkata from Delhi on Saturday, forking out nearly Rs 10,000. Monalisa Mukherjee paid Rs 13,000 to fly down from Bangalore while Akash Parekh paid Rs 12,000 to travel from Mumbai.
At any other time of the year, they could have spent as much on to-and-fro flights. But on the eve of Durga Puja, the mega festival that decks up Kolkata in splendor that would put even London or Paris to shame, fares on flights to the city are on fire. That, though, has not deterred Surajit, Monalisa and Akash from grabbing the opportunity to head home before seats on Kolkata-bound flights run out.
The trio was among nearly 15,000 air passengers who arrived in the city on Maha Panchami to savor a taste of the Pujas. That's an all-time record by a long margin. The previous highest number of arrivals on Panchami was 12,000-odd passengers last year. The travel trade industry expects in-bound passenger count to breach the 15,000-mark on Sunday and Monday as well.
Surajit, who flew in from Delhi, says he is home for Pujas after a six-year hiatus. In the intervening years, he had got used to enjoying the festival in Delhi. With over 100 pujas in the National Capital Region, he enjoyed pandal-hopping Delhi-style. But something made him return home this year. Curiosity.
02/10/11 Times of India

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General Oct 2011