Taking April 15 flight out of city? Be ready to pay more

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

04.04.2020

Those planning to fly after the lockdown ends will have to spend a lot as one-way airfares from Chennai to major cities have increased on April 15.

Expecting a good demand, airlines have jacked up the fares on popular routes. The tickets are expensive than the usual fare quoted by airlines for 10 days’ advance booking.

Fares have increased because of demand on Chennai-Kolkata and Mumbai routes. Airlines have fixed the starting fare at a higher slab on Chennai-Kochi and Chennai-Bengaluru route.

The one-way fare to Bengaluru is Rs 2,400 and to Kochi is Rs 2,800 for all flights. The starting fare to Kolkata is Rs 6,900.

The ticket price has increased by around Rs 500 to Rs 2,000 on some of the routes in a day.

The fares are stable for 10 days’ advance booking as it used to be before shutdown on Chennai-Delhi route because the route has 20 flights on April 15.

Basheer Ahmed of Metro Travels said: “The airlines expect a lot of people who are stuck in different cities to fly on April 15. This is the reason for the fare to remain high on April 15.”

An airport official said there would be an initial rush but there is likely to be a lull in demand after that because it may take time for the people to gain confidence to travel by air. “The screening of arriving and departing passengers may continue if flights resume after the shutdown. All this may make people hesitant to fly unless the number of Covid-19 cases comes down considerably,” he said.

IndiGo has started a promo on its twitter page asking people to tell where they want to fly after the shutdown is over. However, it has not gone down well with irate passengers who have not got their refunds for tickets of cancelled flights. People have responded demanding the airline to issue refunds and that it is the prerogative of customers to decide when to travel.

Airlines have changed ticket cancellation and refund policy and have retained the money in a ‘credit shell’ instead of refunding them so that passengers can reclaim them at a later date if they decide to fly the same route.