Flights to Ayodhya sees 150% increase in bookings, three-times higher prices
The Ram Temple in Ayodhya is set to be inaugurated on January 22 and pilgrims from all across the country are set to visit the city
New Delhi: Passengers will have to pay at least three times more than average fares, if they plan to fly to Ayodhya during the time of the inauguration of the Ram temple, data sourced from online travel portals shows.
The airfares on Delhi- Ayodhya and Mumbai- Ayodhya routes for January 20 and 21 were around ₹16,000 on Thursday, as compared to average fare on the route of around ₹3,500 to ₹4,000. In fact, the fares on the Mumbai- Ayodhya route was over Rs. 20,000.
“Amidst the grand Ram Mandir Pran Pratishtha ceremony at Ayodhya on 22nd January, we are seeing a remarkable 150% increase in Ayodhya flight bookings since January 01, 2024 for 21st-23rd Jan…Additionally, we’ve seen a 70% increase in flight searches to Ayodhya since Jan 1,” Nishant Pitti, CEO and Co-Founder of EaseMyTrip said.
The Ram Temple is set to be inaugurated on January 22 and pilgrims from all across the country are set to visit the city. Ayodhya’s Maharishi Valmiki International Airport was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 30. It has been developed at a cost of over ₹1,450 crore and is designed to serve approximately 10 lakh passengers each year.
Currently, only two airlines; IndiGo and Air India Express operate to Ayodhya from Delhi and Mumbai. However, civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia inaugurated direct flights between Ayodhya and Ahmedabad from Delhi on Thursday.
An Ayodhya airport official said that the loads were much more to Ayodhya than the flights on their return leg. “The airline is seeing good loads in flights to Ayodhya but on the return flights. The reason for this remains unknown as of now,” he said.
IndiGo commenced its daily operations between Delhi and Ayodhya from Wednesday. “The A321 aircraft had around 165- 170 passengers on board its aircraft,” the official added.
Industry experts say that spiritual tourism as a category has grown by 35% in just over a year in the country, with a majority of this being fed by spiritual centres like Varanasi, Amritsar, Katra, Puri, Shirdi, Haridwar and Tirupati.
“The spiritual segment, while furnished by only 4% of the total cities listed on our platform, contributes to over 12% of overall transactions, underscoring its importance,” a MakeMyTrip official said.
Not only the airfares, but also bookings and hotel enquiries have gone up in the city.
Speaking on the demand of hotel stay in the city, Rajesh Magow, Co-Founder & Group CEO of MakeMyTrip said, “Given the comparatively small visitor base for Ayodhya previously, we see a 5X upside in searches (y-o-y) and are already recording 4X more bookings as compared to last year. Expectedly, the duration of Jan 10-22 is seeing a sharp increase in bookings.”
Magow said that the room night bookings in Ayodhya are almost 10% of the top pilgrimage sites in the country so the potential for growth is significant.
“There are a host of new hotels and homestays coming up and getting listed in the area, and the supply is ramping up expeditiously. Ayodhya is poised to become one of the major spiritual destinations of the country,” he concluded.
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