Stuck SpiceJet plane sends airfares soaring in lean season

A SpiceJet plane that veered off the main runway at Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) disrupting 400 flights has sent last-minute airfares on key routes soaring by about 35-40%.

The SpiceJet flight SG 6237 (Jaipur-Mumbai) carrying 167 passengers overshot the primary runway on late Monday night and is yet to be pulled out, forcing the airport authorities to open the secondary runway.

However, the shorter secondary runway allows for 30% lesser flight movements, which led to cancellation and delays of flights. There is uncertainty when the operations will return to normalcy, which is leading to a considerable rise in the number of fliers rescheduling their flights, thereby pushing up the average last-minute fares, travel industry insiders said.

Mumbai-Chennai sector, for example, has witnessed the sharpest rise with last-minute tickets costing about Rs 4,715 on Wednesday, a 64% spike as compared to last week's fares of Rs 2,874, according to data collated by online travel booking platform Ixigo. Similarly, Mumbai-Hyderabad route fares rose 35% to Rs 1,932 as compared to last week's fare of Rs 1,437. Likewise, fares for the Mumbai-Bengaluru sector are at about Rs 3,568, an increase of about 35% when compared with the last week's average last-minute fares of Rs 2,500. Interestingly, these are some of the busiest and competitive sectors in the country, as a result fares always remain in check, experts said.

Aloke Bajpai, CEO & co-founder, ixigo said, "Heavy rainfall in Mumbai has impacted close to 400 flights in the last two days due to disruption in flight schedules. Cancellation of flights has also triggered a rise in last-minute average fares by 35-40% on key routes to and from Mumbai. With disruptions expected to continue in the coming days, we have seen a 22% increase in passengers rescheduling their Mumbai bound flights to next week."

According to Subhash Goyal, founder and chairman, STIC Travel Group of Companies the dynamics of fares is all about demand and supply. "With cancellations of several flights by the airlines, it has naturally created a shortage of capacity on certain routes. Hence, the airlines have increased fares citing demand."

However, the aviation and travel industry experts said the impact of the flight cancellations has not been harsh. As the lean season has just begun, most of those traveling are from the business segment. Others who are still traveling for leisure are either opting out or postponing their travel to/from Mumbai due to the runway obstruction.

Iqbal Mulla, chief counsel at Global Tourism Council, a Mumbai-based tourism consultancy firm, said, "Hopefully, fares would come down once the operations at the primary runway get normalised within a couple of days."

Airport sources said even after the aircraft is pulled back from its spot, it will take a while before the primary runway can be put in full operations as all procedural checks need to the done. Meanwhile, the civil aviation ministry on Wednesday in a statement said it is extremely concerned over the recent incidents of overshooting, skidding, hard landing, etc. Aviation sector regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Tuesday had issued a fresh advisory asking airlines to deploy sufficiently experienced crew in the cockpit during the adverse weather conditions.

"While adhering to the minimum cockpit experience laid down by DGCA, the operators should carry out their own risk assessment before conducting operations during the adverse weather conditions and make available sufficiently experienced crew in the cockpit," a DGCA circular said. Monday's incident at Mumbai is the third instance of skidding of SpiceJet planes in as many days. The latest to veer was a flight to Kolkata from Pune on Tuesday. Another flight had overshot runway at Surat airport on Sunday after taking off from Bhopal. No injuries were reported in both the flights.

According to aviation safety experts, the instances of skidding increase during the monsoon due to wet runways and poor visibility, making it difficult for the pilots to land precisely.