New Delhi: Travelers will have to pay more for domestic flights this summer season, with air ticket prices jumping by 20-25 percent amid canceled Vistara flights and strong demand for air travel, according to industry experts.
At a time when the peak summer travel period is around the corner, the airline industry is grappling with the challenges of increasing capacity to meet demand and is even using larger aircraft on domestic routes.
Faced with pilot problems, Vistara has cut 25-30 flights a day or 10 percent of its total capacity, a development that comes as the country’s airline industry is already operating with a reduced number of planes due to the bankruptcy of Go First and the grounding of over 70 planes by IndiGo due to engine problems.
An analysis by travel portal ixigo showed that spot prices on certain routes jumped as much as 39% in the April 1-7 period compared to the March 1-7 period.
During the given period, one-way spot fares for Delhi-Bengaluru flights increased by 39%, while they increased by 30% for Delhi-Srinagar flights.
The increase is 12% for Delhi-Mumbai services and 8% in case of Mumbai-Delhi services, according to the analysis.
Bharat Malik, senior vice president – air and hotel business at travel portal Yatra Online, said the expected average surge in airfares in the current summer schedule, covering both domestic and international routes, is expected to range between 20-25 percent.
“Vistara’s decision to reduce flights by 10 percent has affected ticket prices on major domestic routes. We have seen a significant surge in fares, with fares skyrocketing by approximately 20-25 percent on key routes such as Delhi-Goa, Delhi-Kochi, Delhi-Jammu and Delhi-Srinagar,” Malik said.
He also said that one of the key reasons for the higher air fares was the reduction in Vistara’s flight operations, adding that rising fuel costs as well as increased demand for summer travel further contributed to the increase.
Vistara will operate more than 300 flights a day in the current summer schedule, which began on March 31.
“We are carefully reducing our operations by about 25-30 flights a day, ie. approximately 10 percent of the capacity we operated. This will return us to the same level of flight operations as at the end of February 2024 and provide much-needed resilience and a buffer in listings,” Vistara said in a statement on Sunday.
ixigo said spot prices jumped 20-25 percent on some routes due to rising demand ahead of the peak summer tourist season and some canceled flights.
“However, this is a temporary disruption caused by last-minute flight cancellations and prices should stabilize in a few weeks, as soon as flight schedules normalize,” it said.
Jagannarayan Padmanabhan, senior director and global head, transport, mobility and logistics consultancy at CRISIL Market Intelligence and Analytics, said the impact of higher air fares on passengers is expected to be significant.
“Going into the busy season, we expect a 5-7 per cent increase in air fares, with price pressure particularly noticeable on intercity routes such as Delhi-Mumbai and Mumbai-Bengaluru. Given that much of the upcoming travel will be for personal reasons and with family, the impact is expected to be significant.”
“Consequently, a significant number of passengers may choose to travel by train for shorter distances instead,” he noted.
According to Malik, flights to popular domestic destinations such as Ladakh, Manali and Goa have seen a 20% rise in prices, reflecting the surge in demand for both layovers and seasonal getaways.
Vistara has a fleet of 70 aircraft, including 63 A320 family aircraft and 7 wide-body Boeing 787s.
In addition, the carrier has deployed larger aircraft such as the B787-9 Dreamliner and A321 neo on selected domestic routes to combine flights or accommodate more customers.
In the current summer schedule, Vistara will operate 25.22% more weekly flights at 2,324.
Indian airlines will operate a total of 24,275 weekly domestic flights during the summer schedule starting March 31, an increase of almost 6% compared to the previous period.
The number of weekly departures was just 2.30 percent higher than the 23,732 flights operated by scheduled carriers in the winter schedule that ended March 30, according to aviation regulator DGCA.
IndiGo, Air India and Vistara will operate more flights, while SpiceJet will reduce departures during the 2024 summer schedule, which runs from March 31 to October 26.
(Published April 09, 2024, 2:39 p.m F)
