Airlines hike fares for June-July, but cut down for July-October

A 15% hike in lowest fare cap by the government has enabled the domestic airline industry to jack up flight ticket rates significantly for the months of June and July.

On the contrary, the same airline companies have decided to offer heavy discounts in air fares for the months of August, September and October.

It is evident that drastic drop in COVID cases across the country has resulted in more people opting to travel, either for work or for vacation.

Usually, airlines keep their fares at the lowest during June and July, but this year has been an exception. People are coming out of the shadow of second COVID wave and want to make the most of the small window they have to travel before the third wave hits the country, if at all it does.

For August-October, some companies have projected the discounts in the form of sales, but many others have offered tickets at discounted rates without declaring sale. Last week, Alliance Air, SpiceJet and Vistara declared monsoon sale. It is quite clear that the airliners want to encourage travellers to go in for advance booking so that they can earn extra revenue through forward booking.

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“In the monsoon sale, most airlines are offering one date change free depending on the sector and fare category, due to lockdown,” Jay Bhatia, vice-president of Travel Agents’ Association of India, told The Times of India. “It’s always easy to change bookings and obtain refunds when the ticket is booked through travel agents. Travellers are tired of staying home and are ready to holiday or commence business flights on completion of two shots of the vaccine,”’ he added.

The primary cause for high fares in June-July is the government’s decision to hike lowest fare cap by 15% this time. The government intends to benefit the airline companies which suffered huge losses due to COVID second wave in April and May.

The drop in fares for August, September and October was observed on routes from Mumbai to Srinagar, Chennai, Kochi, Varanasi and Lucknow. The lowest return ticket on the Mumbai-Srinagar route for June-July is Rs 15,000. For August it starts at Rs 8,300, which means a drop of 50%.

The lowest fare on the Mumbai-Delhi route is Rs 10,000. The fares remain in the same range till the end of July. While the lowest return fare on the Delhi-Mumbai route for August starts at Rs 4,600. Similar drop in ticket rates was observed on most domestic airline routes for the month of August.

Airline companies, however, say that many travellers are still hesitant to travel because of the impending third COVID wave.