Saravanan Gopalan, who hoped to catch a flight from Chennai to Madurai, was aghast when he found out what the fare was. “₹18,000 to Madurai,” the clerk at an airline ticketing counter repeated. “Fares have soared over three times because of cancellations by SpiceJet,” she explained. Just last week the fare was hovering around the ₹5,000 level.

On Wednesday, like Gopalan, many passengers booked on SpiceJet faced the same plight with the airline cancelling all flights.

Passengers thronged the airline’s counters, which had security personnel nearby, only to be told all flights had been cancelled and that refunds would be made over the next 10 days.

Sriram Ramachandran, who was on his way to Thiruvananthapuram for a meeting, had even telechecked in. “I did not know the flight was cancelled till I came to the airport. There was absolutely no communication from the airline,” he said.

Pon Anand flew in from Madurai on Tuesday with his family on a Jet Airways flight, paying a little over ₹5,000 per ticket. He had booked return tickets on SpiceJet, for Wednesday. “Only a couple of tickets were available in Jet, that, too, at a very high price,” he said. Finally, he booked a cab from the Chennai airport to Madurai for ₹18,000, usually a two-way rate.

Extortionate pricing With all SpiceJet fights cancelled and no certainty over their resumption, passengers left in the lurch at the last minute had no option but to pay what the competition demanded, which was several times the usual rate. A Mumbai-Chennai flight on Wednesday was going for a whopping ₹50,000 plus, said Charanya Ramesh, CEO, Shakthi Tours and Travels. Commenting on the skyrocketing fares, she said: “It’s normal. The market is now demand-driven. Airlines that fly the SpiceJet-dominated routes are making a killing.”

Despite a drastic increase in rates, she said seats are not available on these sectors because of the sudden rush. Even Thursday’s rates are as high, she added, stating that a Chennai-Madurai one-way fare was in the ₹13,000–16,000 range.

Interestingly, while SpiceJet fares on travel websites are low, agents are discouraging people from booking on the airline as they say the flights could be cancelled at the last minute. “As we get closer to the Christmas and New Year, we are likely to see fares soar further,” said Sharat Dhall, President, Yatra.com.

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