Learning a lesson from the four major Tuesday fiascos at the city airport, Mumbaikars are looking to travel early in the morning or late in the evening from this Tuesday. As a result travel agents are seeing more bookings for morning and evening flights. This has also led to an increase in air fares for this Tuesday, as these are peak hours.
Rakesh Sharma, 36, a financial consultant from Lokhandwala Complex in Andheri (West), is booked on a Kingfisher flight that departs at 6:05pm for Delhi on November 17. “I have a client meeting in Delhi at noon,” he said. “But these days travelling in the afternoon on Tuesdays to or from Mumbai is not safe. Earlier I would go by a 10am flight for an afternoon meeting.”
On Tuesday, November 10, a Kingfisher Airlines aircraft skidded off the short runway 27A when it rained. Just four minutes before that, an Air India Goa-Mumbai flight skidded on the runway due to aqua-plaining (the formation of a thin layer of water) and damaged two runway lights. On November 3, a GoAir flight had almost crash-landed into construction equipment on the runway twice, but the Mumbai air traffic control intervened and asked the pilot to launch a go-around.
“With these incidents, fliers have become more aware of the travails of travelling on a Tuesday noon flight,” said Rajesh Rateria, managing director of Cirrus Travels, Fort. “We are seeing people avoiding flying in the afternoon. More and more fliers are booking tickets for forenoon and evening flights. As a result, fares have gone up, particularly for the evening slot.”
DNA checked various travel portals and found that while the Mumbai-Delhi fare for early morning flights from 6am to 11:40am was in the range of Rs5,320 to Rs10,219, the fare for the peak slot from 6pm to 9:30pm ranged from Rs10,000 to Rs20,656. For the Mumbai-Bangalore route, the fare was in the range of Rs4,475 to Rs15,278.
“The lack of proper infrastructure is causing inconvenience to both airlines and passengers,” said another travel agent. “This was the peak season for travel and we were expecting the aviation business to pick up. But the problem at Mumbai airport has dashed those hopes.”
