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Indigo disruption leads to airfares surging up to 10X
Airfares in India surged up to ten times normal rates after IndiGo canceled over 1,000 flights, leaving passengers scrambling for costly alternatives.
New Delhi/AMRITSAR/Mohali/Srinagar:
Airfares across Indian carriers surged to as much as ten times their usual rates on Friday following IndiGo’s mass cancellation of over 1,000 flights, with round-trip tickets on major routes crossing ₹80,000- ₹90,000 as passengers scrambled for limited seats on rival services.
A Delhi-Mumbai return ticket reached ₹93,000, while return fares to Bengaluru touched ₹92,000, Kolkata ₹94,000 and Chennai ₹80,000—compared to typical same-day economy round-trip fares of ₹20,000- ₹25,000 on these routes. Even last-minute bookings under normal circumstances rarely exceed ₹30,000.
By Friday evening, most flights were sold out, leaving passengers with little choice but to pay highly inflated fares or postpone travel.
“A return ticket that should have cost around ₹15,000 cost me ₹50,000 with another airline. I had no option but to buy the expensive tickets. It’s terribly unfair on fliers,” said a 36-year-old Delhi-based lawyer who booked a ticket to Bengaluru.
Travel agents said passengers facing emergencies were paying five to ten times normal fares, while others chose to extend their stays or seek alternative transport.
“While people in an emergency have chosen to still book other airlines, we have most customers telling us that they want to extend their stay and wait. Booking trains for shorter journeys of four to seven hours is also emerging as an option,” said Rahul Saraswat, general manager at Delhi-based travel company Shivam Services.
Varun Thukral, who runs Luxury Vacations, said: “The Delhi-Mumbai, Delhi-Bengaluru routes are heavily impacted and the prices have increased exponentially. For instance, for a Delhi-Mumbai flight, airlines other than IndiGo are selling return tickets for ₹40,000-50,000”.
A Gulzar, 62, who works in the social sector, came to Delhi for a US Embassy interview that was scheduled as a one-day affair. “My ticket got cancelled. I have managed to get one Air India ticket for Hyderabad on December 6, but they are charging exorbitant prices. Normally, a ticket from Delhi to Hyderabad would cost around ₹5,000-7,000, but I had to pay ₹32,000 for it,” he said.
Tickets connecting cities other than the capital recorded similar trends.
A Chandigarh to Bengaluru ticket on December 6 showed ₹65,000 for a single seat on Air India—a journey involving a layover in Mumbai with approximately 10 hours flying time. Passengers headed to Mumbai from Chandigarh were quoted fares around ₹43,000 for one-way bookings.
Chandigarh-based travel agent Manjit Singh said the spike was expected given IndiGo’s network size. “With IndiGo being the largest carrier of domestic flights, other airlines are now shooting up the prices, at least for another two-three days. So far, reasonable prices are showing from Monday onwards, but looking at the situation, the prices will shoot up further in a few hours,” he said.
IndiGo cancelled all 11 flights from Jammu on Friday and 13 from Srinagar, with passengers complaining of inadequate support from the airline.
IndiGo cancelled 258 flights in Mumbai—133 departures and 125 arrivals—out of 396 scheduled flights. Mumbai airport sources said 398 flights had been cancelled since December 3.
Luggage piled up in various cargo sections with minimal staff available for collection. Many passengers were seen arguing with IndiGo staff.
A couple whose Chandigarh flight was cancelled learned of the disruption while en route to the airport and had to return home. “We tried booking on other airlines, but prices were jacked up,” they said.
“Whatever has happened shouldn’t have happened. DGCA has taken note of it. IndiGo is India’s biggest airline in terms of operations. During the winter season, everyone is planning to travel either within the country or overseas. It’s a peak period to travel to different destinations. The airline shouldn’t have inconvenienced people. Those travelling from overseas may have to redraw their travel plans during Christmas, owing to such high airfares,” said Iqbal Mulla, former president of Travel Agents Association of India.
Civil aviation minister Ram Mohan Naidu has directed DGCA to closely monitor airfares during the flight disruptions and ensure the crisis does not lead to fare increases, according to a ministry statement issued Thursday.
(Inputs from Dheer Chawla, Ateeq Shaikh, Yogesh Naik )
