Extended holiday sees airfares surge

Chennai: The Eid and Onam festivals were a happy occasion for many in the city, with the possible exception of air passengers.
With train tickets virtually sold out, airfares from Chennai to destinations such as Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Coimbatore, as well as the return fares, have skyrocketed. However, the silver lining is that airfares to and from Bengaluru have moved in the opposite direction, nosediving as a result of the protests and related violence over the Cauvery issue.
Travel Agents Federation Committee member A Basheer Ahmed said many Keralites from Chennai prefer to go home to celebrate the Onam festival. This year the Eid celebrations came a day before Onam, which gave many people an extended holiday, triggering an increase in the number of people travelling from Chennai to Kerala.
As train reservations were hard to come by, with tickets being sold out soon after the bookings opened 120 days earlier, many travellers were forced to opt for flights. The sudden increase in the number of people opting to fly from Chennai to Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Coimbatore has led to airlines jacking up the ticket fares.
For example, the Thiruvananthapuram-Chennai airfare on Thursday was Rs 10,045. This was the minimum fare and it went up further depending on the timing of the flight to Chennai. Similarly, the airfare from Kochi to Chennai ranged from Rs 9,557 to Rs 13,746. On the Coimbatore-Chennai sector, the fare was between Rs 8,900 and Rs 11,700. Normally, the fare on the Thiruvananthapuram-Chennai route is in the range of Rs 3,500 to Rs 5,000. Similarly, the Coimbatore-Chennai airfare is usually not more than Rs 4,500.
Basheer Ahmed said ticket fares on the Chennai-Bengaluru route have dipped drastically in the wake of the Cauvery-related violence in the city and other parts of Karnataka. Tickets were available for as low as Rs 1,997 from Bengaluru to Chennai and the maximum fare was just Rs 2,495. The lack of demand was unusual as this sector usually has heavy patronage, especially from business travellers, he noted.