Team Blitz India
NEW DELHI: Air travel on the country’s busiest routes this year-end is likely to be easy on your pocket compared to previous years.
Airfares on major domestic routes like Delhi-Mumbai, Mumbai-Bengaluru, and Mumbai-Chennai have dropped by up to 28 per cent for the December 24-January 1 period compared to a year ago. This “adjustment” in airfares can be attributed to airlines’ efforts to rectify the missteps taken before Diwali, aviation industry officials say.
In the run-up to the festival, airlines had maintained elevated fares to safeguard their higher yields (the average revenue earned per passenger per kilometre). However, this strategy resulted in lower load factors on several routes as the date approached, forcing them to reduce spot fares around Diwali in a bid to maximise aircraft occupancy.
The situation has shifted to such an extent that Vistara initiated a three-day sale on its domestic network for tickets booked for travel between December 11 this year and September 30 next year.