Mumbai: Airfares spike during long weekends due to high demand

Domestic airfares have significantly increased for the upcoming two long weekends in April, due to the long list of public holidays in the month. The cheapest round trip fare for Mumbai-Srinagar during the April 7-9 Easter weekend was ₹52,000. For Dehradun, the cost of a round trip from Mumbai was ₹34,000, and for Kochi, the fare was ₹13,000.

Goa, the most popular short-holiday destination, is in high demand, with airfares starting from ₹10,000 during the Easter weekend.

However, convenient flights departing from Mumbai during the Ambedkar Jayanti weekend (April 14-16) are priced at ₹17,500.

Airfares on popular routes from hubs like Mumbai, Delhi, and Bengaluru to destinations such as Chandigarh, Srinagar, Dehradun, Kochi, Goa, and Port Blair have witnessed a 20-60 percent surge during the long weekends in April compared to March, indicating a rise in holiday traffic and migrant workers traveling home for breaks.

This April, airfares are comparatively higher than last year’s for the same period, indicating a rise in demand. But the trend of offering the cheapest fares on metro-to-metro routes and for late night or early morning flights to popular leisure destinations remains the same.

Destinations such as Srinagar, Leh, Kochi, Dehradun, Mangaluru, and Tirupati continue to have the most expensive flights from metros like Mumbai and Delhi.