Airlines continued to increase fares on the fourth day of the Jet Airways pilot stir, ignoring a letter from the directorate-general of civil aviation (DGCA) asking them not to do so. Flights on the busiest sectors, like Mumbai-Delhi, were packed and tickets were going for anywhere between Rs8,000 and Rs14,000.
Amit Shah, 32, a financial executive from Mumbai, said, “I wanted to go to Delhi this Friday. But either there are no flights or the ticket price is touching the sky. There is no ticket available below Rs7,000.” Earlier, Shah said he could have flown to Delhi for a mere Rs3,000.
Till Friday evening at least, air fares remained high. In some cases, seats on low-cost airlines cost more than on a full-service carrier. For instance, the counter staff of Kingfisher quoted Rs8,928 for an evening flight from Mumbai to Delhi while GoAir was quoting Rs13,003 for its 9:15pm flight. The fares for short-haul routes like Mumbai-Pune and medium-haul routes like Mumbai-Chennai were Rs9,220 and Rs9,133, respectively.
“The weekend, coupled with the unavailability of Jet Airways flights, has led to this sudden rise in fares,” said a travel agent from Fort, who did not want to be quoted.
Director-general of civil aviation Nasim Zaidi could not be contacted for his comment.
