Surge in airfares, courtesy Diwali

Tribune News Service

Mohali, October 16

With the festive season around the corner, the flights operating from Chandigarh have become expensive.

Officials of airlines, including Indigo, Jet Airways and Vistara, said the flights to busy traffic destinations such as Delhi and Mumbai were overbooked, owing to Diwali and long weekend.

An airport official said, “Normally, airfares are slightly dearer during Diwali. The flights are overbooked also because of the change in watch hours. Some flights were curtailed, so there is traffic on busy routes to Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru.”

A flight to Delhi over the weekend will cost around Rs 7,000, while a flight to Mumbai will cost over Rs 10,000. The price of a ticket to Hyderabad on Saturday is around Rs 13,000.

An official from Vistara airlines said both their flights to Delhi were overbooked.

Sources at the airport said competition among low-cost carriers had led to low fares on the Diwali day. However, the fares are exponentially higher for the days following the festival.

However, the occupancy of international flights from Chandigarh to Dubai and Sharjah has been low.

“The international flight to Dubai is booked at 60 per cent occupancy for the week ahead. A lot of travellers tend to spend Diwali with their family. Only people who have business commitments are travelling abroad,” said an official of Indigo Airways.