The grounding of Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft is having a direct impact on air passengers’ pocket in India as several airlines reported a steep jump in airfares following cancellations of multiple flights.
Reduction in seat capacity and increased demand due to the festival season has just added to the misery. Spot fares between key Indian cities have also reported a huge jump in wake of the Boeing 737 Max 8 crisis.
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What We Know So Far
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- Several sectors have shown a rise of more than 100% in the last moment bookings
- On Thursday Delhi-Chennai spot fare reached 13000 as compared to Wednesday's 11000
- Spot fares for Mumbai-Chennai touched 23,073
- Higher airfare patterns are expected to continue with Holi around the corner and summer holidays coming up later
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Reasons
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- Operations of Spicejet and Jetairways have been hit by the decision of the Government to Ban Boeing 737 MAX aircraft and this will cause a hike in spot fares
- 19 aircraft were grounded in February over non-repayment of dues to the lessers, while 13 aircraft were grounded this month taking the total to 32
- Air India has grounded 17 aircraft due to technical reasons
- Around 50 plans are said to be non-operational due to host of reasons including lack of spare parts
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“Spot fares for Mumbai-Chennai are touching Rs 26,073 as opposed to Rs 5,369 the same time last year. High airfare patterns are expected to continue in the short term with Holi and summer school holidays around the corner, resulting in increased demand,” Aloke Bajapi, CEO and Co-founder, Ixigo was quoted by IANS.
Operations of airlines like SpiceJet and Jet Airways have been hit due to the government's Wednesday decision to join a global grounding of 737-MAX aircraft following a crash in Ethiopia.
(With inputs from IANS)
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