Flights now cheaper than trains for most tourist destinations after introduction of surge pricing

Thanks to surge pricing introduced in Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duronto Express coaches by the Indian railways, it will be cheaper to take a flight to most winter destinations in the country if the traveler plans the journey a few weeks in advance.

Take the case of Goa, the most preferred winter destination in India, for example. Air tickets to the coastal state are as low as Rs.4,100 in the second week of December and even lower in January, when it hovers around Rs.3,600. In comparison, the train journey from Delhi to Goa will cost Rs.6,165 for 1st AC and Rs.5,310 for 2nd AC coach in Rajdhani Express.

SMART PRICING

"Airline companies have introduced smart pricing. Most of the travelers are opting for flight tickets this year," a travel agent based in Connaught Place told Mail Today. "This gives dual advantage to passengers who save on money as well as time." Travel trade experts said airline companies were quick to take advantage of the surge pricing introduced by the railways.

They point out that a day after railways introduced surge pricing last month, Air India announced their 'Uro Jee bhar ke' (Fly to your heart's content) scheme, which offers flight tickets to waiting-listed train passengers at fares lower than those of two-tier AC tickets. Burdened with financial losses, both the Railways and Air India have been working at strategies to ramp up passenger earnings.

The national airliner managed to reach a "break-even" point last year but it still carries an accumulated burden of losses worth approximately `50,000 crore. Losses from passenger earnings to the Railways this year are estimated at Rs.32,000 crore.

IMPACT OF SURGE PRICING

Railway officials have maintained that surge pricing will not have a major impact on ticketing but statistics present a different story. Till last year, all seats in major trains to Goa and Kochi including Trivandram Rajdhani and Madgao Rajdhani Express were filled two to three months in advance during winters. The officials also claimed the 'flexi seats' scheme had notaffected its ticket sales and that it did not face the threat of losing passengers to the airlines.

However, booking figures this year suggest a large number of seats are vacant towards December end. "Air fares this winter are unbelievably low. I was planning vacations in Andaman and Nicobar islands for the last couple of years but the air ticket was too expensive. This year, I booked air tickets from Delhi to Port Blair for just `5995 for December 14," said CK Roy, a traveler. The other winter destinations like Kerala or Kashmir are also cheaper than the train tickets to these destinations.

COMPARATIVE RATES

In addition, the flight tickets to warmer cities like Kochi, Mumbai or Chennai are also cheaper than the railways. For, fares in all Rajdhani Express trains bound to these cities have increased by up to 50 per cent. No wonder, most of these Rajdhanis are registering low occupancy as compared to previous years. The starting air fare for Kochi is Rs.4,300 in second week of December while train fares have shot up to Rs.7,565 and Rs.5,740 for the 1st AC and 2nd AC class in Trivandram Rajdhani Express during the same period.

The air fare for Kochi is almost equal to the fare in Rajdhani 3rd AC, i.e. Rs.3900 that will go up with further booking of seats in coming days. Similarly, air tickets to Sri Nagar and Mumbai are pretty cheaper than the train fares. While air fares for the entire months of December and January start at 1791; the minimum flight ticket to Mumbai is Rs.2151 during the same period. Comparatively, traveling to Mumbai in Rajdhani 2nd AC will cost you `3615, which is almost `1500 more than the flight ticket. The railway ministry has maintained that there will be no rollback of surge pricing for Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duronto trains. However, there was no plan to make the flexi pricing scheme applicable to air conditioned classes of other trains. Although railway ministry official claim that despite surge pricing, which has been capped at 1.5 times of the base fare, there has been no fall in number of tickets booked sources in the administrative wing said the rise in number of bookings was only due to the festive rush and the numbers have already begun declining during the winters.

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