Anil Kalsi of Delhi-based Ambe Travels said: "Spot fares on some sectors have gone up by up to 100% as it is the weekend and inventory of lower advance purchase-priced tickets has been sold out. What is available for spot sale are the higher category fares. With close to 100 flights less (50 departures and as many arrivals) a day during runway closure period, the demand-supply mismatch has added to the issue of higher fares."
One of the three runways at IGIA is closed for eight days from Friday. IGIA handles about 1,300 flights a day. This number will fall to about 1,200 during the runway repair period. While air traffic has exploded in last four years, Delhi Airport has not seen any capacity expansion since 2009-2010 when it had got its third runway, terminal 1A and T3. The maximum spike in airfares on reduced number of flights is for over this weekend.
John Nair, head of business travel at Cox & Kings, said: "The closure of a runway at Delhi for a brief period has disrupted flight schedules and have led to a reduction in the number of flights from the city. This has led to an increase in airfares for the next ten days. Though spot fares to key destinations such as Delhi-Mumbai, Delhi-Kolkata and Delhi-Bengaluru have gone up by 30-40%, those who booked early grabbed the cheap deals that were available in the market."
Airlines blame DIAL for delay in expansion
Airlines blame Delhi International Airport Pvt Ltd (DIAL) for majorly delaying the expansion plan under which IGIA is to get the fourth runway and a bigger T1. "By now, all this should have happened as Delhi Airport has ample land unlike, say, Mumbai CSIA that does not have any place for expansion and is operating at full capacity. Neither did DIAL carry out expansion on time, nor did the government ask them to do so. The end result is that passengers suffer a lot when even the inadequate capacity is hit for some reason and that too in peak travel season," said an airline official.
from Times of India https://ift.tt/2FmQLrH
