Any respite in the near term is likely only if and when the tidal wave of travel demand ebbs, which is likely only once this year’s peak summer travel season is behind us. Longer-term price stability and affordability will depend on various other factors too.
Airfares in India are soaring. While they had started firming up last year itself as travel demand rebounded after the Covid pandemic subsided, this year’s summer travel season has seen an unusually high spike in ticket prices. Go First’s bankruptcy plea and subsequent suspension of its flights joined other factors such as surging demand and capacity constraints, among others, in forcing flyers to pay through their noses bang in the middle of the country’s peak summer travel season.
Social media platforms are replete with consumers complaining about surge pricing. The government, too, has taken note of “abnormal surge pricing on certain routes” and asked airlines to “self-monitor” and devise a mechanism to ensure reasonable pricing on such routes.
Table for recent airfare (inclusive of return flight) in rupees.
Any respite in the near term, however, is likely only if and when the tidal wave of travel demand ebbs, which is likely only once this year’s peak summer travel season is behind us. Longer-term price stability and affordability will depend on various other factors too, including travel demand trajectory, the pace of capacity addition by airlines, and jet fuel prices and other cost centres.
Source: Indian Express