Explained: Why Air India has capped fares on Srinagar-Delhi flights to under Rs 7000

The advisory by Jammu and Kashmir government asking tourists to leave the valley area has created a sudden spurt in sale of flight tickets out of Srinagar.

Written by Pranav Mukul
Updated: August 5, 2019 06:46 AM IST

2 min read

Explained: What caused Air India's flight delays, and why it will have a cascading impact

However, no private airline has capped its fares

Flag-carrier Air India has imposed a cap on its fares on the Delhi-Srinagar sector on account of a surge in ticket prices due to increased demand. The advisory by Jammu and Kashmir government asking tourists to leave the valley area has created a sudden spurt in sale of flight tickets out of Srinagar.

What is the cap put by Air India?

The airline announced that it was holding the maximum fare at Rs 6,715 fo its Srinagar to Delhi flights and at Rs 6,899 for its Delhi to Srinagar flights till August 15. The airline is expected to operate two flights from Srinagar to Delhi on Sunday. However, tickets on these flights are already sold out

Have other airlines capped their fares too?

While most flights for Sunday on the Srinagar-Delhi sector have been sold out, fares for Monday remained subdued so far between Rs 6,000 and R 11,000. However, no private airline has capped its fares

Why do fares suddenly rise?

All airlines have various fare buckets according to the number of seats available on a particular flight and the time left before departure.

Generally, when demand is high and time is less, only the fares in the highest fare buckets remain available for reservation. While this happens occasionally on trunk routes, an emergency situation like that in Jammu and Kashmir results into high volumes of queries and reservations leading to an increase in the last moment fares. However, during such times of exigencies, the government and the civil aviation regulator intervenes to ensure that the fare algorithm does not cause passenger inconvenience.

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