Jet Airways hikes fares by steep 25 per cent

Airfares have gone over the roof in the past couple of days with all the scheduled carriers either in the process of hiking fares or have already done.

In some of the sectors, airfares have almost doubled, with an increase of about 90 per cent.

For instance, the airfare for a one-way DelhiMumbai ticket was about `9,200 on Wednesday, up from about `5,000 on Monday.

Sources said private airline Jet Airways has already hiked fares by about 25 per cent on an average. The hike by JEt follows SpiceJet’s suit where the latter has already hiked its fares by nearly 30 per cent.

Spokespersons for national carrier Air India and market leader IndiGo were unavailable for comment. Travel websites and travel agents also confirmed that airlines have hiked fares by about 25 per cent on an average already.

The airfares have been hiked following a steep 7 per cent hike in the prices of aviation turbine fuel (ATF) by the state-owned oil firms that have seen ATF prices going to an all- time high. This has come as bad news for passengers.

The civil aviation mjinistry is also convening a conference of civil aviation ministers of all the states in the Capital on September 10 and is likely to request the states to lower sales tax on ATF which accounts for 45 per cent of the operating costs of airlines.

The union government has so far not taken any decision on placing ATF in the declared goods category — that will see a uniform sales tax of four percent levied on ATF — despite the civil aviation ministry pushing for this for the past so many years.

According to president of travel booking website Yatra.com Sharat Dhall: “There are multiple factors at play in this significant increase in airfares, ranging between 15 per cent to 25 per cent across sectors. The effect of the depreciating rupee, the hike in the aviation turbine fuel prices, significant pre-bookings via promotions earlier in the year, combined with the fact that airlines had cut their fares earlier.”

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