Low airfares spike summer travel

It is a lucky summer for travellers this season as domestic and international airfares on most routes have dropped significantly.

With flash sales and low ticket rates, more travellers are preferring to take the aerial route.

According to online travel portals, there has been a drop in airfares up to 35 per cent on domestic and 16 per cent on international routes, between April and June 2016 compared to corresponding period in 2015. Travel portals have also indicated a growth of over 40 per cent in air bookings in 2016 compared to 2015. According to strategic data of these portals to which this paper has access, the domestic flight market has also grown by 23 per cent. Trends show that mobile booking apps are playing a vital role in bookings this year.

Mobile bookings contribute to over 30 per cent of overall flight bookings, up from single digits last year. According to statistics given by travel portals, Dubai, Colombo, Kathmandu, New York, London, Singapore, Bangkok are on the priority list of travellers this year.

Market experts said that with Indigo and Vistara adding more flights and destinations, passengers had more options.

Airlines have also come up with many schemes recently, because of which airfares got stabilised in the April-June quarter of 2016 when compared to 2015, said Harsh Jha, an aviation expert.

Diwakar Pareek, vice-president of Makemytrip.com said, “With heavy advance purchase for summer vacation period and the upcoming high travel season, we expect the overall numbers to spur robust growth.”

According to Mr Pareek, Delhi-London and Bombay-New York average fare in June 2016 saw a drop by 16 per cent, while the reduction in fares helped to create new demand for air travel on these routes.

Sharat Dhall of Yatra.com said, “We have seen a growth of over 40 per cent in air bookings in 2016 compared to 2015.”

In addition, there have been some short-term sales from the airlines that has further dropped fares to make it close to train fares on some routes, resulting in a shift in the mode of travel towards flights, he added.