Hike in jet fuel price has been pushing the fares up
Hike in jet fuel price has been pushing the fares up
Passengers may have to loosen the purse strings to take a flight for a holiday, business trip or work as the airfares have touched a new high.
In the next two weeks, be it a one-way flight to New Delhi or Madurai, a passenger will pay an exorbitant fare, with the prices going as high as ₹10,000 or more. A round trip in the Chennai-Bengaluru sector will cost a passenger ₹10,000-₹12,000 and a round trip between Chennai and New Delhi is priced ₹18,000-₹20,000.
Some passengers say they have decided to take trains instead of flights whenever possible. Ram K, who works in Mumbai and travels frequently to his residence in Chennai, says that earlier he would take a flight home, spend the weekend with his family and return. But of late he has cut down on his travel or he takes a train one way. “I can’t afford to spend ₹18,000 on a round trip. So I travel once a month or perhaps twice. I take a train from Mumbai to Chennai and I return by flight,” he says.
S. Jeyasekaran, of Travel Agents Association of India, says middle-class passengers who were earlier spending on flights frequently are now apprehensive about travel. “They will cut down on non-essential travel. But those going on holidays continue to do so as the holiday season is just coming to an end. This is because, for two years, they have stayed away from taking a vacation for safety reasons. So, the demand continues to be there. But people have started booking three or four weeks in advance to save some money,” he said.
Recently, the Union Finance Ministry suggested that government employees who had to travel for any meeting book their plane tickets three weeks prior to their trip.
The hike in jet fuel price has been pushing the fares up in the last few months. A few days ago, it went up by another 16.3%. In Chennai, it is ₹1,46,215.85 a Kilolitre, officials said.
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Source: https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/flying-out-of-chennai-to-be-a-costly-affair/article65542893.ece
