Chennai: Ahead of Pongal (a harvest festival) and the holiday season, soaring airfares have left the homebound Tamilians in jittery. Pongal is usually celebrated with great pomp across Tamil Nadu. People living in Chennai and its suburbs for work along with college students from distant places return to their hometowns en masse to celebrate the festival with family.
A comparison of regular fares with festive season prices highlights the dramatic increases, especially on routes from Chennai to key cities of Tamil Nadu and neighbouring states.
Flights from Chennai to cities like Madurai, Trichy and Coimbatore have seen price hikes ranging from a whopping 200 per cent to 552 per cent. Below is a stark comparison of the fare differences:
Come January 14, the beginning day of Pongal, thousands of people will start taking buses, trains and flights from the previous night. As bookings are full, passengers are vying for government buses. The state government has also arranged special train and bus services to accommodate the festive rush.
Meanwhile, there have been allegations of charging exorbitant fares against private buses. In the scenario, passengers are exploring flight options and thronging the Chennai Airport since Friday evening.
ETV Bharat tracked the e-ticketing portal Flydealfare to gauge the airfares which usually spike during festive seasons, and prices of Chennai-origin flights have skyrocketed. The average and current airfares of different destinations from Chennai on Saturdays looked like this:
Route
Regular Fare
Saturday's Fare
Difference in Percentage
Chennai-Madurai
Rs.3,999
Rs.17,645
341%
Chennai-Trichy
Rs.2,199
Rs.14,337
552%
Chennai-Coimbatore
Rs.3,485
Rs.16,647
378%
Chennai-Thoothukudi
Rs.4,199
Rs.12,866
206%
Chennai-Thiruvananthapuram
Rs.3,296
Rs.17,771
439%
Chennai-Salem
Rs.2,799
Rs.9,579
242%
Source: Flydealfare.
These figures paint a grim picture for flyers, particularly those travelling for reasons beyond leisure. Many complain that such price hikes make essential travel — for emergencies, work or examinations — an unmanageable financial burden. The Chennai-Thoothukudi and Chennai-Salem flights were fully booked for Saturday and a few tickets are available for Sunday. Due to the rush, people from the southern districts are opting for Chennai-Thiruvananthapuram flights, leading to a price surge in the route.
Delhi Airfares See Moderate Increase
Interestingly, while South Indian routes have seen steep hikes, flights from Delhi to major cities like Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Mumbai have witnessed a moderate increase:
Route
Regular Fare
Saturday's Fare
Delhi-Hyderabad
Rs 4,099
Rs 4,871
Delhi-Mumbai
Rs 4,673
Rs 5,555
Delhi-Bengaluru
Rs 5,651
Rs 7,493
Delhi-Kolkata
Rs 4,499
Rs 6,289
Delhi-Chennai
Rs 5,299
Rs 6,355
Source: Makemytrip.
The stark disparity has left experts and passengers questioning the pricing strategy of airlines, especially on high-demand routes from Chennai to other tier-two cities.
Exorbitant Pricing on Select Routes
A Vadodara-Pune flight on January 11 costs Rs 29,772, while its fare on January 12 is Rs 11,557. The Mumbai-Pune fares for January 19 and 20 are Rs 14,533 and Rs 14,251, respectively while Nashik-Delhi flights for January 19 cost Rs 10,911.
Dr Subhash Goyal, chairman of the Aviation and Tourism Committee of the Indian Chamber of Commerce, sounded concerned over the unchecked fare hikes and called for government intervention. "We request the government to cap upper fares like it was done after Covid-19. The government's stand is that it is a free market economy, and we want to have a free market. But if you can fix the taxi fare from airport to hotel, why can't you fix airline fares?" he asked.
He emphasised how such pricing disproportionately affects passengers travelling for non-leisure purposes. "Some people travel for medical emergencies, exams or family crises. Allowing airlines to exploit such flyers during peak seasons is equivalent to black marketing. If a person sells a cinema ticket for Rs 200 in black for Rs 500, they are arrested. Similarly, airlines should not be allowed to charge 200-500 per cent over regular fares," he said
Passengers' Dilemma
Krish Gupta, a Delhi-based pharmaceutical distributor, said. "I had to travel to Ahmedabad and Mumbai during the festive season and noticed nearly a 100 per cent increase in airfares. This makes it difficult to manage even essential trips." Gupta's experience reflects the plight of many flyers who feel trapped by the limited options available during peak travel seasons.
What's Driving the Surge?
Experts attribute the surge to dynamic pricing models where airlines increase fares based on demand and capacity. The festive season traditionally sees a spike in travel as families reunite, businesses pause and individuals go on vacations. However, critics argue that this demand-supply imbalance has led to unchecked exploitation, with airlines prioritising profit over the affordability of passengers.
Need for Regulation
While airlines defend dynamic pricing as part of a free-market economy, experts and passengers urge the government to introduce fare caps during peak seasons. Such measures could ensure a balance between profitability for airlines and affordability for passengers.
As the Sankranti and Pongal holidays are ahead, the steep price surge remains a pressing concern. Without regulatory intervention, flyers are left with Hobson's choice of either selling out the inflated price or trashing their plans. The growing calls for change suggest that fare caps might be the only solution to ensure fair pricing for all.
About Pongal
The history of the Thai Pongal festival can be traced to the Sangam Age. Known as the Dravidian harvest festival, scholars say the 2,000-year-old festival was well-known as Thai Nadal. History has it that unmarried girls worshipped god for the prosperity of agricultural wealth and they observed penance by not drinking milk and the items prepared from it, not applying oil on hair and taking baths at dawn.
In Tamil parlance, Pongal means 'overflow' or 'boiling over. The festival is also popular as Thai Pongal, the four-day festival is observed in the Tamil month of Thai when crops like rice are harvested and the cultivators pay their obeisance and gratitude to the god and the fertility and generosity of the field. Homes in Tamil Nadu are decorated with traditional designs called kolams, made from ground rice. Aside from Tamil Nadu, neighbouring states Andhra Pradesh and Telangana also celebrate it.
