Domestic air fares to take off from today

NEW DELHI: Domestic carriers are set to reduce the number of low-cost seats on their flights. This will automatically result in a 5-10% increase in average fares. With the holiday season beginning next month, this spells bad news for those who have not booked their flights so far.

Though carriers officially toe the line that there is no published increase in fares, travel agents confirm that carriers will release lower number of seats in the lower price buckets in the busy season. This means that last-minute flyers will be booking at higher rates, which generally means fares would be around 10% more than in the September-October period.

This year, many are clubbing the Christmas or New Year weekend to go on short vacations to destinations within the country and to S-E Asia. “Due to the higher demand, our weekend fares during the Christmas and New Year’s holidays should be around 10% higher,” conceded Vishwapati Trivedi, managing director, Indian.

With all airlines following a dynamic fare strategy, demand pushes up fares to higher brackets. Airlines too keep tweaking seat availability in each fare basket in keeping with demand. “This is the usual demand and supply play,” said the marketing head of a low-cost carrier. Most airline seats to popular destinations like Goa and Srinagar are sold out, and the few available ones are in the highest bracket.

Carriers also hope to improve their passenger yield in the peak season by not passing on any of the reduction in ATF prices.