Airfares shoot up on school holidays

It is the end of school vacation; people have come back after long holidays. But airfares on metro routes refuse to go down thanks to business travel, IB school vacations and a booming economy, say travel agents.

For instance, a Mumbai-Chennai ticket that costs anywhere between Rs3,500 to Rs9,000 is now available for Rs12,864 to Rs17,525. Even a Mumbai-Delhi ticket that starts from Rs3,000 is in the range of Rs12,249 to Rs21,600.

“This is primarily because the domestic travel market in India has grown by over 20% due to a booming economy,” says Rajesh Rateria, chairman, Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI). “And a lot of business travel has also begun, thereby maintaining high fares,” he says.

Normally, airfares continue to be high till the second week of June due to end of travel season and end of school vacations. But now, fares are high even on international routes and one of the reasons attributed by travel agents is that it is the beginning of vacation for International Baccalaureate (IB) schools.

The IB schools’ vacation starts from June and continues till August. There are around 12 to 16 IB schools in Mumbai and around 70 in India. “The beginning of  these vacations also contribute to the high airfare,” said a travel agent from Andheri (West).