Airfares jump 20-25 pc amid Vistara woes, high travel demand

Vistara is to operate more than 300 flights daily in the ongoing summer schedule that started on March 31.

“We are carefully scaling back our operations by around 25-30 flights per day, i.e. roughly 10 per cent of the capacity we were operating.

This will take us back to the same level of flight operations as at the end of February 2024, and provide the much-needed resilience and buffer in the rosters,” Vistara said in a statement on Sunday.

ixigo said spot fares have surged by 20-25 per cent on some routes due to rising demand before the peak summer travel season and some flight cancellations.

“However, this is a temporary disruption caused by last-minute flight cancellations and fares should stabilise in a few weeks as soon as flight schedules normalise,” it said.

Jagannarayan Padmanabhan, Senior Director and Global Head, Transport, Mobility, and Logistics Consulting at CRISIL Market Intelligence and Analytics, said the impact of higher airfares on travellers is expected to be substantial.

“As we enter the busy season, we anticipate a 5-7 per cent increase in airfare, with pricing pressure particularly notable on trunk routes like Delhi-Mumbai and Mumbai-Bengaluru.

Given that much of the upcoming travel will be for personal reasons and with family, the impact is expected to be substantial.

“Consequently, a considerable number of travellers might choose rail travel for shorter distances instead,” he noted.

According to Malik, flights to popular domestic destinations like Ladakh, Manali and Goa have seen a 20 per cent uptick in prices, reflecting a surge in demand for both staycations and seasonal getaways.

Vistara has a fleet of 70 planes comprising 63 aircraft from A320 family and 7 wide-body Boeing 787s.

Further, the carrier has deployed larger aircraft like B787-9 Dreamliner and A321 neo on select domestic routes to combine flights or accommodate more customers.

In the ongoing summer schedule, Vistara will be operating 25.22 per cent more weekly flights at 2,324.

Indian airlines will operate a total of 24,275 weekly domestic flights during the summer schedule starting from March 31, a nearly 6 per cent increase compared to the year-ago period.

The number of weekly departures is just 2.30 per cent higher as against 23,732 flights being operated by the scheduled carriers in the winter schedule that ended on March 30, according to aviation regulator DGCA.

IndiGo, Air India and Vistara will operate more flights while SpiceJet will reduce departures during the 2024 summer schedule that spans from March 31 to October 26.