Anyone planning to fly out of Chennai to any major destination in the country in the next two weeks will have to pay more for airfares in the backdrop of a sharp spike in the jet fuel prices.
Airfares from Chennai to almost all metro cities are exponentially high and this could grow even higher in the coming days. For example, Chennai to New Delhi the fares touched ₹8,000 and going as high as ₹ 11,000.
A one-way trip to Bengaluru from Chennai in a flight will cost a passenger about ₹4,500 now as against ₹1,500 a few days ago. Similarly, there has been an increase in airfares to Hyderabad and Mumbai ranging between ₹6,000 and ₹7,000.
Closer home, travel to other districts in the State is dearer, says S. Jeyasekaran of Travel Agents Association of India. “Business travellers and passengers from the middle income groups who have to take last- minute flights for various reasons will find it difficult to fly now. People will have to plan way ahead in advance, find the right day and fare to afford these fares,” he says.
The Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) — used for flying aircraft — makes for 40% of an airline’s operating cost and the drastic increase of 18% in ATF will result in 7.2 percentage points in margin compression for an airline, says Jagannarayan Padmanabhan, director and practice leader, Transport and Logistics, CRISIL Infrastructure Advisory. The airlines are not in a position to absorb such a steep rise in price. Just at a time when the travel industry was bouncing back to near normalcy, this development will cause hike in fares and spoil the plans of leisure travellers, he says.
ATF price in Chennai is one of the highest in the country after Kolkata with one kilo litre priced at ₹1.14 lakh. In Delhi and Mumbai, the price is ₹1.10 lakh and ₹1.09 lakh respectively.
