look news india
With the onset of the festive season, air travelers planning to go home and travel have faced a major financial blow. Just after the major airline IndiGo increased the fuel surcharge, now Tata Group’s Air India, Air India Express and budget airline Akasa Air have also announced a huge increase in their fuel surcharge. These new rates are applicable with immediate effect on all new ticket bookings made from October 9. After this decision, there will be a direct increase of ₹ 375 to ₹ 1200 depending on the distance on one-way tickets of domestic flights. For international flights also, airlines have fixed additional surcharge as per the route. This increase in fares just before big festivals like Diwali and Chhath Puja has spoiled the travel budget of middle class families and regular travelers.
Airlines say that due to the record rise in the prices of Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF), they were left with no other option but to increase the fares. Due to rising geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and uncertainty over crude oil prices in the global energy market, aviation fuel rates have surged by nearly 14 per cent in recent months. Fuel alone accounts for more than 40 percent of the total operating cost of any airline. Air India and Akasa Air have clarified in their official statements that instead of passing the entire burden of increased fuel cost on to the passengers, they are only charging a part of the cost as surcharge. Along with this, fuel prices and market conditions will be reviewed from time to time, due to which there will be a possibility of getting relief in future.
Flights on domestic routes are divided into different categories based on distance, which will attract different additional charges from short haul to long haul flights:
-
Distance from 0 to 500 km: A fuel surcharge of ₹400 per ticket will be applicable for this slab on Air India and Air India Express, while Akasa Air will charge an additional ₹375 for this category.
-
Distance 501 to 1,000 kilometres: For flights falling in this range, Air India, Air India Express and Akasa Air both have imposed a similar surcharge of ₹600.
-
Distance between 1,001 to 1,500 kilometres: Air India Group has fixed ₹850 for this distance, while on Akasa Air, passengers will have to pay an additional ₹900.
-
Distance above 1,500 km: A maximum fuel surcharge of ₹1,200 will be levied on Air India and Air India Express flights of 1,501 to 2,000 km and above. Whereas in Akasa Air, this surcharge has been fixed at ₹ 1,150 for all routes above 1,500 km.
Along with domestic flights, additional burden has been put on the pockets of passengers going abroad. Air India and Air India Express have fixed surcharge depending on the destination region. Passengers traveling from India to North America (US, Canada) will have to pay a fuel charge of $215 (approximately ₹18,000) on a one-way ticket. There will be a surcharge of $210 on Australia route, $135 for entire Europe including Britain and $55 on travel to West Asia/Gulf countries (Middle East). Akasa Air, on the other hand, has set a revised fuel surcharge of flat ₹2,500 per ticket on its select international flights—such as Doha, Jeddah, Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait City, Phuket and Hanoi routes.
The demand for flights from metros like Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Ahmedabad to Uttar Pradesh and Bihar is at its peak during the festive season. The air distance from Delhi to Lucknow or Varanasi falls within the range of 500 to 700 kilometers, on which now an additional surcharge of ₹ 600 will be directly added. Whereas for cities more than 1,000 km away from Delhi like Patna, Darbhanga or Guwahati, there will be a direct increase of ₹ 850 to ₹ 900 in tickets. If a passenger is coming from Mumbai, Bengaluru or Chennai to Lucknow, Ayodhya or Gorakhpur, he will have to pay a maximum surcharge of ₹1,150 to ₹1,200 per ticket since the distance is more than 1,500 km. For those who were turning to flights due to not getting confirmed seats in trains, traveling with their families will now prove to be very expensive.