Today the Hindi newspaper Dainik Bhaskar published an article regarding increased cost the airlines are having to bear due to the continued closure of international airspace over Pakistan. In the headline, the article says that daily 70000 travellers are paying upto 5 times more airfare due to this. Although it is correct that Airlines are having to spend more due to the longer route they are having to take bypassing Pakistan, the numbers mentioned in the report are highly exaggerated and defy logic.
The report by Dainik Bhaskar mentions that daily around 233 flights to and from India are affected due to the closure of Pakistani airspace, which carries around 70 thousand passengers. According to the report, passengers travelling to Europe and the US are paying 4 to 5 times more in ticket price due to this. But this is clearly an exaggeration, as airfare has not gone up by that much. A simple search on online ticketing portals show that the cost of flight tickets to European and American destinations remain the same as usual price, they have not gone up by any significant amount.
Moreover, the flight time has gone up by 1-2 hours for most airlines due to avoiding Pakistani airspace, which would be around 20% increase for a 10-hour flight. So, there is no reason why the ticket price will go up by 5 times for that increase.
The article also mentions that Air India is spending Rs 6 crore extra for its flights to Europe and the US due to the change in route. The flight time has increased, and the non-stop flights to New York are having to halt for refuelling. This has added extra fuel and airport ground handling charges for the already loss-making airlines. But an earlier article in Business Standard has mentioned that Air India was losing Rs 3 crore daily due to this reason. So, this means the amount has doubled to Rs 6 crore in the Dainik Bhaskar report.
23/06/19 OpIndia
To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline
The report by Dainik Bhaskar mentions that daily around 233 flights to and from India are affected due to the closure of Pakistani airspace, which carries around 70 thousand passengers. According to the report, passengers travelling to Europe and the US are paying 4 to 5 times more in ticket price due to this. But this is clearly an exaggeration, as airfare has not gone up by that much. A simple search on online ticketing portals show that the cost of flight tickets to European and American destinations remain the same as usual price, they have not gone up by any significant amount.
Moreover, the flight time has gone up by 1-2 hours for most airlines due to avoiding Pakistani airspace, which would be around 20% increase for a 10-hour flight. So, there is no reason why the ticket price will go up by 5 times for that increase.
The article also mentions that Air India is spending Rs 6 crore extra for its flights to Europe and the US due to the change in route. The flight time has increased, and the non-stop flights to New York are having to halt for refuelling. This has added extra fuel and airport ground handling charges for the already loss-making airlines. But an earlier article in Business Standard has mentioned that Air India was losing Rs 3 crore daily due to this reason. So, this means the amount has doubled to Rs 6 crore in the Dainik Bhaskar report.
23/06/19 OpIndia
0 comments:
Post a Comment