NEW DELHI: Ongoing disruption at Tata Group airline Vistara has led to a sharp rise in airfare. Data sourced from travel portals shows airfares across specific routes have spiked up to 39%.
Besides Vistara’s 10% capacity reduction, the grounding of planes by IndiGo over engine-related issues and changing demand-supply dynamics ahead of the busy summer season are keeping air travel an expensive affair.
“Vistara’s decision to cut flights by 10% has affected ticket prices on major domestic routes. We’ve observed a major surge in fares, with prices skyrocketing by approximately 20-25% across key routes such as Delhi-Goa, Delhi-Kochi, Delhi-Jammu, and Delhi-Srinagar,” said Bharatt Malik, Senior VP- Air and Hotel Business, Yatra Online.
He added that at present the reduction in flight operations by Vistara, coupled with new guidelines from aviation regulator DGCA has propelled these higher fares. “It is anticipated that these issues will be resolved in the upcoming weeks, leading to a decrease in airfares. However, with the strong demand for summer travel bookings, fares are most likely to remain on the higher side for the period,” stated Malik.
Data from travel and ticketing platform ixigo shows there has been a major rise in ticket prices in past one month on popular routes. The biggest rise is seen on the Delhi-Bengaluru route where spot airfares have jumped 39% before and after Vistara flight cancellations and reduced flight operations. The other sectors, as per ixigo, which have seen a sharp rise are Delhi-Srinagar (30%), Delhi-Mumbai (12%), and Mumbai-Delhi (8%).
Rohit Sharma, COO, of AbhiBus (an ixigo company) said that they have seen a significant surge in bus travel searches in the last 10 days on popular routes that have been affected by last-minute flight cancellations.