Chennai: As airlines cash in on thousands flying to their hometowns to celebrate the festival with families, the airfares from Chennai have skyrocketed. Fares on both inter-state and intra-state routes have risen sharply, in some cases more than three times the usual rates, and most flights are already fully booked.
A Chennai-Delhi ticket, which normally costs around ₹10,844, was priced at ₹17,570. The fare to Kolkata has more than doubled from ₹7,612 to ₹16,954, while tickets to Ahmedabad have risen from around ₹7,240 to ₹12,218. A Chennai-Bhubaneswar ticket, which usually costs around ₹7,199, was available for ₹27,650 via Mumbai on Friday. The fare to Jaipur has risen from ₹10,199 to ₹20,601 via Bengaluru. A Chennai-Thoothukudi ticket, which usually costs ₹6,768, was priced at ₹17,363. Fares to Madurai rose from ₹4,647 to ₹16,969, while tickets to Trichy increased from ₹5,066 to ₹14,778. A Chennai-Coimbatore ticket, usually priced at ₹4,605, was available for ₹14,870, and the fare to Salem increased from ₹3,503 to ₹12,769. A Chennai-Mumbai ticket was priced at Rs 9,335 against the usual Rs 5,431, while fares to Hyderabad increased from Rs 5,600 to Rs 9,351. Tickets to Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi were priced at Rs 10,945 and Rs 9,454, respectively, against their usual fares of around Rs 5,000.
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A Sankar, president of the Indian Air Passengers Association (IAPA), said this has been a regular phenomenon during every festival, and our repeated complaints to Union civil aviation minister K Rammohan Naidu and the AirSewa portal have gone in vain. The sharpest increases have been on some routes involving connecting flights. The rush is particularly high on flights to northern cities such as Delhi, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, and Bhubaneswar, where Diwali is celebrated as a five-day festival beginning Friday. Airfares to destinations within Tamil Nadu , including Thoothukudi, Madurai, Trichy, Coimbatore and Salem, have also increased steeply. Fares to other popular destinations have also gone up. Download the TOI App.
Passengers have been leaving Chennai in large numbers since Friday as Diwali falls on Sunday and the state govt has declared Monday a holiday.