Air fares of flights to and from Chennai shoot up, range over Rs 25,000
Chennai: Domestic airlines have hiked up their fares multifold for flights landing and departing from the airports closer to Chennai in the wake of heavy rains in the state and subsequent closure of the capital city airport.
National carrier Air India was charging fares as high as Rs 51,750 for a business class ticket for its flight to the city from Bangalore for on Friday, while private Jet Airways fares stood at Rs 47,000.
These fares, in normal situation, could be around Rs 25,000, a travel agent said.
"Some airlines have doubled air fares for flights to cities such as Bangalore, Hyderabad and Coimbatore, which are not very far from Chennai," Iqbal Mulla, president of Global Tourism Council in Mumbai said.
A Delhi-based travel agent, however, said there was no particular pattern seen in the fares to these cities as air fares were always dynamic and keep changing at a regular interval.
"Air fares are so dynamic that it is difficult to read a pattern in them. At one particular time they may go up, but at another time they may hit rock bottom on a particular sector," he said.
AAI, which late evening announced the partial resumption of flight services from Chennai airport tomorrow, had earlier decided to close the airport till Sunday due to flooding of the runway and nearby operation areas.
Significantly, Government had yesterday allowed some domestic airlines to carry out limited commercial operations from the Rajali Naval Air Station near Arakkonam, with a fixed ticket price of Rs 1,000 for Southern destinations and Rs 2,000, after national carrier Air India landed a passenger flight at the naval air station.
