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Mumbai-resident Anil Pathak will never forget the day of his first job interview. He paid almost Rs 8,000 for a low cost carrier's air ticket to reach Delhi on Monday — an amount which was as much as the monthly salary he was offered. And Pathak's is not a standalone tale of woe.
For domestic passengers making last-minute travel plans, Monday was a picture of uncertainty with Kingfisher Airlines cancelling several of its flights and others jacking up their prices. A company statement said the cancellations were because of its “limited distribution ability caused by IATA suspension and also employee agitation on account of delayed salaries”.
While Mumbai was the most affected with more than 10 KFA flights being cancelled on Monday, Bangalore and Chennai saw five and two cancellations respectively. In the Mumbai-Delhi sector, which has seven daily services, only three direct flights operated on Monday.
The mismatched demand-supply ratio also resulted in the air fare pricing between low-cost carriers (LCC) and full-service carriers (FSC) “narrowing down”, pointed out travel agents. Besides, tickets on some LCCs are not available on some important routes,” said Mr Sanjay Kumar Gupta, Secretary – TAFI Karnataka.
“The gap between LCC and FSC has blurred due to the current situation. Air fares have jumped by Rs 5,000 to Rs 7,000. In fact, LCCs like IndiGo have kept their fares just above Air India,” Mr Vinay Gupta of Via.com, told Business Line .
“There is a huge inventory gap especially on the trunk routes, and prices of air tickets are going up consistently,” said Ms Richa Goyal, Director, STIC Travel Group. Travel agents peg capacity reduction due to IATA's suspension of Kingfisher Airlines in the past week at 30 per cent.
Travel agents said that the Mumbai-Kolkata sector air fares of Indigo, Air India and Jet were over Rs 7,000 for Tuesday.
“IndiGo fares for Tuesday in the Mumbai-Delhi sector were as much as Jet and Air India. The demand for other airlines has gone up and there is scramble for seats in the peak hours. Nobody wants to travel in KFA and we have stopped taking bookings for the airline,” said a travel agent from Cosmos Agencies in Mumbai.
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