Air fares to the US spiral after travel curbs eased

Air fares to the US spiral after travel curbs eased

Petlee.Peter@timesgroup.com

Bengaluru:12.11.2021

Air fares from Bengaluru to various destinations in the United States have skyrocketed after the US opened its borders for fully vaccinated travellers across nations on Monday. The US had closed its borders as a measure to contain the pandemic.

Now, a one-way ticket from Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport to JFK Airport, New York, starts at Rs 91,000, up from Rs 35,000-50,000 earlier, leaving several people who had intended to travel in a quandary.

Elderly Bengaluru couple Ajith and Shanta, who were eager to meet their first grandchild, were thrilled when travel curbs were eased. Their grandchild was born in the US in mid-2020. “We were all set to fly to New York after the ban was lifted, but ticket prices have more than doubled. The best return fare we can get is Rs 1.6 lakh per passenger,” said Shanta.

Return air fares to New York would usually cost Rs 70,000 to Rs 1 lakh but now, while Rs 1.6 lakh is the cheapest, the cost of a ticket goes all the way up to Rs 2.5 lakh. Passengers are unable to find cheaper tickets and indications are that fares will only rise.

Puja, a communications executive from Hyderabad, said her sister had planned to fly from San Francisco to Bengaluru to visit her family in Hyderabad. She hadn’t seen them in two years. “We checked for tickets in December and were stunned to see return fares cost $3,400 which is over Rs 2.5 lakh on conversion,” Puja said. “The holiday season will only see airfares going up.”

Indiver Rastogi, president of Global Business Travel, Thomas Cook, India and SOTC said airfares have seen a surge of between 30% and 100% when compared to pre-pandemic levels. “This is because of significant pent-up demand across leisure, visiting friends and relatives (VFR) and business segments in the face of limited capacity.”

He said a San Francisco-Bengaluru pre-pandemic return fare of Rs 90,000 has seen a 100% jump to Rs 1,80,000 and for New York-Bengaluru the fare increase is approximately 67%. “However, resumption of commercial flights will ease capacity constraints and pricing will fall,” he said.

Prahlad Krishnamurthi, chief business officer, Cleartrip, said demand for the US is improving for travel dates around mid-December and January and bookings have shown an uptick in the recent past.