Day 7: Kingfisher cuts outbound flights by half

In this schedule, effective between February 26 and March 24, the airline will operate only 31 domestic flights as opposed to the 57 listed earlier with the aviation regulator in its winter schedule.

Airfares for flights out of Mumbai are likely to stay high for some time as Kingfisher Airlines has cut outbound domestic services by more than half, according to the new schedule released on the airline’s website on Friday. The airlines’ international flight schedule remains unchanged.

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In this schedule, effective between February 26 and March 24, the airline will operate only 31 domestic flights as opposed to the 57 listed earlier with the aviation regulator in its winter schedule.

Friday, the seventh consecutive day of widespread cancellations, saw the airline cancel 13 flights out of the city. Airport sources said that since passenger loads on Kingfisher flights have been low, the cancellations did not affect many.

While most of the flights in the new schedule are daily operations, some will be operated only three to four times a week.

“Spot fares across airlines are already high. Now even fares for tickets bought in advance are likely to go up,” said a Colaba-based travel agent requesting anonymity. A one-way economy class ticket between Mumbai and Delhi for Saturday was selling at Rs 14,500, compared to the normal Rs 7-8,000.

Kingfisher has not changed its international schedule. It will operate a daily flight each to Dubai, London, Bangkok, Singapore and Hong Kong from the city. But tour operators said the airline might struggle to find fliers having lost inter-line agreements with more than two foreign carriers in Asia-Pacific region.