Vistara trims operations, airfares surge! Here are some of the routes seeing higher fares amid travel season – Airlines/Aviation News

The aviation industry is about to meet with the peak summer travel season and the ticket prices have already started hitting the higher end.

This comes as Vistara has announced to scale down its operations to 25-30 flights per day, making up 10% of its operational capacity. This too is pushing the ticket prices higher and higher. 

According to an Indian Express report, the travel industry insiders have said that fares on major routes like Delhi-Goa, Delhi-Kochi, Delhi-Jammu, and Delhi-Srinagar have increased by around 20-25%.

Increasing airfares amid travel season

Seeing the decision taken by Vistara and its effect on the ticket prices, Yatra Online’s Bharatt Malik said there has been a “significant surge” in the ticket prices on some of the major domestic routes where Vistara has a strong foothold. He said, “We have observed a significant surge in fares, with prices skyrocketing by approximately 20-25 per cent across key routes such as Delhi-Goa, Delhi-Kochi, Delhi-Jammu, and Delhi-Srinagar.”

According to Bharatt Malik, Senior Vice President, Air and Hotel Business at Yatra Online, a “significant surge” has been witnessed in airfares on some of the major domestic routes where the airline has a strong presence. “We have observed a significant surge in fares, with prices skyrocketing by approximately 20-25 per cent across key routes such as Delhi-Goa, Delhi-Kochi, Delhi-Jammu, and Delhi-Srinagar,” Malik said.

According to an executive from another travel agency, although the Vistara flight cancellations might only be a temporary occurrence lasting a few months, any brief disruption contributes to the strain on the capacity-limited Indian aviation system, which has been striving to meet the surge in travel demand since the conclusion of the Covid-19 pandemic. In such circumstances, it’s inevitable that airfares will rise. They said that over 70 aircraft of IndiGo are grounded due to engine-related issues and supply chain problems along with 50 Go First planes sitting idle. “There are visible capacity constraints and the airlines seem helpless at this stage. On the other hand, demand growth is not letting up, leading to a skewed demand-supply scenario,” they added.

What did Vistara say about scaling down its operations?

Releasing a statement on Sunday, Vistara said, “We are carefully scaling back our operations by around 25-30 flights per day, i.e. roughly 10% of the capacity we were operating.” The airline added that the reduction will take its operations to the level it had at the end of February 2024. This will give it “much-needed resilience and buffer in the rosters”, the airline added.

“In line with what we had said earlier, with this all the changes for the month of April 2024 have been done and the situation has already gotten better with our on-time performance improving for the last few days. Looking ahead, we are hopeful of stable operations for the rest of the month and beyond,” it further said.