Flyers changing travel dates due to high fares

NEW DELHI: Flying in and out of Mumbai on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays till March 30, 2019, is going to cost anywhere up to 25% more than regular fares. The Mumbai airport will see no flight movement between 11am and 5pm on these days till March-end, except March 21, (Thursday, when it will operate full day) due to runway repairs.The six-hour closure means reduced flights on the affected days, due to which fares have spiked for those days, said travel portal Yatra COO Sharat Dhall. "We are witnessing a sharp fare hike on days when a reduced number of flights will operate due to runway closure at Mumbai airport," Dhall said.John Nair , head of business travel at Cox & Kings, said: "The Mumbai airport closure has led to a spike in airfares. Mumbai is the busiest (single runway) airport and any curtailment of flights have a big impact on airfares. We see a 15% to 20% hike in airfares. This (hike percentage) will go up as corporate travel is usually last-minute and it will lead to increased demand in the face of limited inventory."Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport has two cross runways. It will witness repair work at the intersection of two runways, necessitating closure of both of them and there can be no flight movement in those hours. The airport handles 46 flights an hour and up to 276 flights could be impacted daily. A travel agent said fares on other days when runway closure won't happen are also seeing a hike.“People are finding higher fares on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday flights in and out of Mumbai. So they are advancing or postponing their travel. Due to increased demand for this reason, fares on other days are also up. Luckily, this is the lean travel season and the airport will be back in action 24x7 before summer,” he said.The real problem, say industry insiders, is that Mumbai did not get the second airport in time. CSMIA is operating at capacity and is the world’s busiest single runway airport. While it is operating optimally, Mumbai’s demand for travel is much more than the airport can meet. Navi Mumbai has been talked about since early 2000 but is still some years away.Read full report in Bengali