Airfares continue to soar after Go First shut operations
Go First, before suspending operations carried about 35,000 passengers daily. Now that the airline is shut, this traffic is being directed to other airlines. So a squeezed capacity and increasing demand is leading to airfares skyrocketing.
Go First's grounding has burnt a big hole in the pockets of air travellers with airfares seeing multi-fold spike ever since the airline shut operations. Some of the key routes that Go First operated on are seeing a very sharp surge.
CNBC-TV18 gathered prices from various booking sites at around 4 PM on May 30. The results show that if you are travelling on May 31 from Delhi to Leh, then be ready to shell out over Rs 36,000 per ticket. For Mumbai to Leh, the lowest fare is Rs 17,000 and highest is Rs 35,000 rupees. Delhi to Srinagar, a very popular Go First route is costing Rs 11,600 as the lowest fare and Rs 26,700 as the highest fare. Then Mumbai to Jammu, the lowest fare is Rs 10,800 and the highest is Rs 52,600. These are the highest ever rates seen on these routes.
Similarly, other routes like Delhi-Goa, Delhi-Patna, Mumbai-Patna, Mumbai-Varanasi and Mumbai-Chennai are also seeing a dramatic spike in airfares.
So how exactly is Go First's grounding impacting airfares?
India saw 4.2 lakh domestic passengers on May 29, so air traffic is continuously rising.
Go First, before suspending operations carried about 35,000 passengers daily. Now that the airline is shut, this traffic is being directed to other airlines. So a squeezed capacity and increasing demand is leading to airfares skyrocketing.
A look at the market share of existing airlines shows Indigo has gained significantly since January growing from 54.6 percent to 57.5 percent in April.
Akasa Air is another beneficiary gaining market share from 2.8 percent in January to 4 percent in April.
But this is also at the cost of one airline going out of business at least for now. For airfares to come down, India will probably need more players in the market.
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