The average prices of airline tickets have fallen 20-25% this Diwali season compared to prices a year back, according to a PTI report which cited an Ixigo analysis and added that this is because of increased passenger-carrying capacity and a recent fall in oil prices.
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What are some examples of flight ticket costs falling this Diwali season?
A point to note is these are a one-way average fare on a 30 days APD (advanced purchase date) basis, with the time period being from November 10-16 this year.
The highest decline recorded is 38% for a Bengaluru-Kolkata flight. It used to cost ₹10,195 last year, but is now just ₹6,319 this year.
Next comes Chennai-Kolkata, which fell 36% to ₹5,604 from ₹8,725 last year.
Then comes Mumbai-Delhi, which fell by 34% to ₹5,762 from ₹8,788 earlier.
The Delhi-Udaipur flight also dropped to ₹7,469 from ₹11,296.
There was a recorded decline of 32% on Delhi-Kolkata, Hyderabad-Delhi, and Delhi-Srinagar flights.
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What caused the flight ticket prices to fall?
“Last year, airfares around Diwali had surged due to limited capacity, primarily driven by the suspension of Go First airline,” the report quoted Ixigo Group CEO Aloke Bajpai as saying. “However, this year we’ve seen some relief as additional capacity has been added since then, leading to a 20-25% year-on-year dip in average airfares across key routes for the last week of October.”
Oil prices dropping 15% this year also had a role to play in the ticket prices falling, he said, adding that this came primarily due to rising geopolitical tensions.
On which routes did air ticket prices rise?
The report also added that airfares rose 34% on the Ahmedabad-Delhi route to ₹8,758 from ₹6,533 and also on the Mumbai-Dehradun route to ₹15,527 from ₹11,710, according to the analysis.
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