Air Travel to Get Expensive: Check out the New Airfares

The flight tickets in India are set to rise as Civil Aviation Ministry on Thursday raised the lower-upper limit for the local flights till March 31. The Ministry increased the lower and upper limits on domestic airfares by 10 to 30%.

Earlier, after the coronavirus epidemic, the aviation ministry imposed a ban on domestic airfares in May 2020. The government has indicated that a fare hike becomes necessary due to the opening up of the aviation industry.

After a lock-down initiated by the central government to avoid coronavirus transmission, all scheduled commercial passenger flights were halted in the country on 25 March 2020. They resumed operation on 25 May 2020.

In addition to the airfare limits, the government ordered airlines to fly no more than 33% of their domestic pre-Covid flights. As of now, 80% of domestic flights approved till March 2021.

Check out the New Airfares

Flight Duration	Old Range in Rs	New Range in Rs
Less than 40 minutes	2000-6000	2200-7800
40-60 minutes	2500-7500	2800-9800
60-90 minutes	3000-9000	3300-11700
90-120 minutes	3500-10000	3900-13000
120-150 minutes	4500-13000	5000-16900
150-180 minutes	5500-15700	6100-20400
180-210 minutes	6500-18600	7200-24200

"The upper price band on 180-210 minute flights which is now capped at Rs 18,600, will be increased by about 30 per cent to Rs 24,200, an increase of Rs 5,600. On the shortest route for the minimum price band, the price will be increased by 10 per cent, an increase of Rs 200," MoCA said.

According to aviation secretary Pradeep Singh Kharola earlier, airlines would make available 40% of total seats in an aircraft at less than the mid-point price between the highest and lowest fares.

Since March 23, 2020, due to the coronavirus pandemic, scheduled international passenger traffic continues to remain suspended in India. Since July 2020, however, special international flights have been operating under air bubble agreements formed with different countries.

In order to save revenue, all Indian carriers took cost-cutting steps last year, such as salary cuts, leave without pay and dismissal of workers.

GoodReturns.in