Last-Minute Air Travel Can Increase the Fare to Five Times

Why plan a last-minute air travel, when the prices can shoot up five times. This tendency is only during business or medical emergency, and unwillingly we spend up to five times more from the initial rate. According to reports, ticket prices are unfairly high during the 15-day advance booking period when 50% of aircraft seats get filled. There are some factors that determine this price hike. We see it demand remains high even at higher airfares.

Supply chain is the consistent issue that result in the price ramp-up. According to reports 100 aircraft and deferment of new ones like GO Fast all contribute to airfares going out of control as demand for travel peak because of the ongoing summer vacation. News also confirm, they also grounded nearly 70 planes between IndiGo and SpiceJet. Having analysed through online travel portal Ixigo, a one-way spot fare of ₹16,585 for a Delhi-Ahmedabad flight on May 24 turned five times more expensive than that in last month when the same ticket was available for ₹3,325. Again notified, the fare of ₹15,093 on a Delhi-Pune flight for the same travel date was three times more expensive. The Cleartrip portal show, the average fare for top five metros for a flight booked within 24 hours of departure was ₹8,743 compared to the non-metros which went up by a spike of 42% against a spike of 54% for the metros in April.

There are patterns like revenge tourism or the increasing surge of travel post pandemic has allowed airlines to bid higher air fares. The domestic passenger traffic has exceeded by 15%-20% of pre-COVID times as much it has raised the airfares by double.

Gaurav Patwari, vice-president, Air Category, Cleartrip comments that the sudden surge of airfares in the May over April is solely due to peak season demand and a reduction in capacity because of the grounding of Go First and unfortunately the scenario gave rise to an imbalance in demand & supply. He further added " We expect the current scenario to continue till mid-June. Capacity ramp-up will play a significant role in rationalisation of fares". Will all these factors deter our next month's travel plans? it’s easy to feel like the planet might be to blame. But all we can do is pull things together to a good travel planning — be it bleisure or pleasure.

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