Fares smell extended weekends, go skywards

PANAJI: Two weekends with Gandhi Jayanti, Dussehra and Eid sandwiched may be the perfect time to sneak in a holiday, but an escape to or from Goa will require deeper than usual pockets.
Bus fares to Goa from the metros and vice-versa, around September 30, are priced up to 3,800—over double the fare on regular weekdays. Even a non-AC sleeper bus ticket to Pune from Goa is 3,200 up to October 5, which marks the end of the unusually extended weekend.

Regular weekday AC bus fares to and from Goa from most major cities touches 1,300 max. But Bangalore and Mumbai AC bus fares from September-end to October 5 are 3,500 and a similar ticket to Chennai is 2,800.

"The public sector Kadamba bus fares cost 900 for non-AC and 1,200 for AC. But these tickets are already sold out and so are train tickets with travellers informing us of being up to 500 in the waiting list. My agency books tickets online, but even if they are booked offline the fare will only come down by 100," said A Sawant, a ticketing agent in Panaji.

Flight fares too have shot up and strategically so. While the rates to travel from the metros to Goa have risen around end of September, the prices have spiraled again around October 3 to 5 when tourists are likely to return from their holiday.

Travelling from Chennai to Goa will cost the flyer Rs8,500 on October 1. The fare will come down to Rs3,700 on the following days. But the return from Goa to Chennai on October 5 is a shocking Rs14,900.

A seat on a Delhi to Goa flight is a pricey Rs11,200 and Rs10,500 for October 1 and 2, while the return fare will stay at Rs10,000 up to October 7. On non-holiday weekdays the fare on this sector is normally Rs4,700. The high fares are expected to normalize only in the later part of the second week of October.

From September-end to October 2, the Bangalore to Goa flight fare is priced between Rs5,500 and Rs7,500. The return fare is Rs9,900 on October 5.

Herman Gomes, a native of Navelim in South Goa, who is employed in Mumbai, said, "The fares are hiked for tourists, but they affect Goans like us who want to return home and enjoy the holiday week with our family. It is especially unaffordable for a person like me who has just started working. I am paying Rs1,800 for a non AC, non-luxury seater bus, which normally costs me Rs 400. And I had to book it three weeks in advance."