There was an almost 50 per cent surge in air ticket bookings on Monday even before the government announced that it would stop all domestic airline operations from Tuesday midnight. But in what will be good news for air travellers, the domestic air fares have not increased proportionally.

“The second half of Monday has seen an almost 50 per cent surge in domestic airline bookings which is normally not noticed on Mondays,” Aloke Bajpai, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, ixigo told The Hindu Business Line.

But despite the surge in domestic bookings, fares have not surged and a Delhi-Chennai one-way ticket is still available at about ₹7,000. Similarly, a one-way ticket on long distance domestic flights from Delhi are in the ₹5000-6,000 range.

With the government imposing a one-week ban on domestic flights by schedule airlines from midnight on Tuesday, there is expected to be a huge rush for tickets, as even long distance trains have been curtailed.

In the past, domestic air fares have sky rocketed when calamities struck different parts of the country as was seen during the floods in Chennai and Jammu and Kashmir.