This story is from April 10, 2016

Air fares dip as airlines increase flight frequency

Air fares to Mumbai, Delhi and a few other metros have dipped for travel in the coming days.
Air fares dip as airlines increase flight frequency
Chennai: Air fares to Mumbai, Delhi and a few other metros have dipped for travel in the coming days. Tickets are selling in the 4,500-5,500 range on the Chennai-Delhi route and 2,500-4,500 range on Mumbai route for two days advance booking. This will come in handy for people who have not planned their summer holidays in advance.
Fares are also low on the Chennai-Kolkata route where tickets are available in the 5,500-9,000 range for travel on Monday, which is cheaper by 1,000-1,500 when compared to the fare last year.

The dip in fares is attributed to increase in frequency and delay in beginning of holiday travel. Airlines have also introduced more flights on metro routes from Chennai for better connectivity to international routes anticipating high demand. However, fares on short routes like Chennai-Thiruvananthapuram, Chennai-Kochi and Chennai-Hyderabad, where the number of daily flights is not high, remain high.
Basheer Ahmed of Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI) said air fares were not as high as they were in the same period last year. "Tickets were selling at 9,000 for one day advance booking to Delhi last year. This year, airlines have increased frequencies and have also introduced discounts to attract holiday travel."
Fares to Delhi are cheaper because flights are more frequencies. "There are around 11 flights to Delhi daily. IndiGo recently introduced three flights and Air India has added flights from Chennai to connect to international routes to Vienna and destinations in the US out of Delhi," he added.
Flying to Mumbai is unusually cheap, with tickets as low as 2,500-3,500. The two metro cities are gateways to international destinations, especially Europe. There is a dip in tourist traffic to Europe because of fluctuating Euro and heightened security after the Brussels attack.
Travel and tour operators say this is a brief interval of low fares. "Fares will start to climb by end of the month and the first week of May when holiday travel will reach its peak. People have started to fly on domestic tours but there will be a rush next month when more schools will close," said an airport officer.
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