Rising summer airfares fail to deter travellers

Flight tickets turn expensive due to rising demand and lower capacity

- Anu Sharma

Airfares are climbing. And people are planning to travel more. Two contrasting trends are merging this summer, belying the gloomy outlook of rising air fares hurting travel.

Flight tickets are turning expensive because of rising demand and, more pertinently, due to not enough capacity available to handle that demand-IndiGo, India's largest airline, has grounded 20% of its fleet; Mumbai airport, India's second busiest, has been asked to cut down flights.

Travel group Thomas Cook has seen a year-on-year (y-o-y) uptick of approximately 10-15% in advance air fares for AprilMay on routes connecting hubs such as Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai to popular summer destinations of Srinagar, Chandigarh, Leh, Bagdogra and Goa.

As per travel platform ixigo, advanced airfares have surged by around 30% for routes such as Delhi-Srinagar and DelhiGoa.

Still, based on advance bookings and search trends, industry executives say air traffic is also likely to grow in the summer months, with demand primarily rising for leisure destinations.