Spot airfares rise up to three times on busiest routes

In the wake of Go First’s exit, spot airfares and the fares of tickets purchased 24 hours prior to the flight’s departure, on country’s busiest routes have shot up by up to three times in the last one month even as the fares have gone up only marginally for tickets booked a month in advance, Business Standard reported.

Quoting data from Ixigo, the report said that the one way spot fare for India’s busiest, Delhi-Mumbai route, was Rs 6,125 on May 1. The prices for the same on June 1 climbed to Rs 18,654. Spot fares for India’s sixth busiest, Delhi-Pune route, have also seen a similar uptick. From Rs 5,469 on May 1, the fare galloped to Rs 17,220 on June 1.

The Delhi-Bengaluru, Delhi-Kolkata and Delhi-Srinagar routes also saw 47 per cent, 72 per cent and 87 per cent rise respectively for the same dates.

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Go First’s absence is the major reason behind this spike.

“People who had booked seats in advance on Go First are now making spot bookings for other airlines as Go First is not operating. This has shot up the spot airfares, especially on routes where Go First had a sizable presence,” an airline executive told the publication.

Another reason mentioned in the report was the onset of summer at a time when leisure travel sees growth. Apart from that, the report says that Indian carriers lack additional planes to immediately fill up for Go First’s absence.

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The difference between the average daily domestic passenger traffic and the average daily domestic flight volume in May—which decreased by 4.6 per cent month-over-month—shows the demand-supply imbalance.

Notably, fares for tickets purchased 30 days before departure have increased only marginally. In fact, two of the five busiest routes in the country have seen a small decline in such fares. Such fares for the Delhi-Mumbai, Delhi-Bengaluru, and Mumbai-Bengaluru route have risen by 9 per cent, 13 per cent and 10 per cent respectively while for the Delhi-Srinagar and Delhi-Kolkata route they have seen a slight fall of 6 per cent and 3 per cent respectively.