Passengers cry foul as Kerala-Dubai airfares skyrocket

Airfares to Dubai from the Indian state of Kerala have skyrocketed by more than four times from now until the first few days of September as a result of the end of summer vacations and upcoming Onam festival.

Return airfare from Kozhikode, Kerala, to Dubai has gone up from around Rs19,000 (Dh1,150) a few weeks ago to as much as Rs78,500 (Dh4,790) around Onam (September 9), leading passengers in Kerala scrambling to other airports in India for cheaper options.

A Keralite who’s landed a job in the UAE changed his travel plans after he was told the airfare from Kochi to Dubai is a whopping Rs80,000. The jobseeker opted to travel from Thiruvananthapuram to Mumbai, and from there to Sharjah, paying altogether Rs60,000, thus saving Rs20,000 (Dh1,220).

“All return air tickets from Kerala, especially from Kozhikode and Kochi are very high up to September 10. These rates are four to five times more than the normal rate during other seasons,” said Abdul Rasheed, a Travel Consultant.

Indian families who travelled to India on one-way tickets in anticipation of lower fare later are now in a fix as the fares have shot up substantially. Passengers are taking round about routes to save on travel cost. Some people are taking the Kerala-Delhi-Dubai route while others are flying to Mumbai to get connecting flights with cheaper fares.

Passengers complain that although there are nearly 10 airlines, including budget carriers, servicing the Kerala-Gulf sector, airfares spike up during peak seasons.

Travel agents maintain that it’s a demand-supply issue. Sajeesh Thampi, Regional Manager, ITL Travel, told Emirates 24|7 that tickets sell out fast during peak seasons and that airlines reserve a limited number of seats to cash in during such periods.

“Return airfare from Kerala to the UAE are very high [currently]. Almost all the flights are fully booked. There are some cases of offloading too because all the passengers booked for the flight are showing up and there are no last-minute cancellations either, which happen at other times.”

Vinay Nambiar, Vice-President of Arike Airline and formerly with Kingfisher Airlines, said: “When there is high demand and less supply of seats, rates will go up in any sector. In this sector, demand has been going up during some seasons.”

Thampi said, during this season, demand is always higher than the available supply of airline seats and passengers who decide to purchase their tickets at the last minute end up paying a higher fare.

“There are not many seats vacant right now, even in the Business Class,” he said, adding that fares of budget carriers are high too.

“It is not that airlines are deliberately increasing the rates. In the ticket booking system, airlines have between 6 and 10 high and low airfare scales. If there are 200 seats in a sector, the first 20 seats will be cheaper, and the last 20 to 30 seats will be substantially high. The price difference can go up to as high as double,” says Nambiar.

“In the same flight, same class, two passengers can be paying very different rates. Those who book and plan their trips in advance will get cheaper tickets and those who come in the last minute will pay high,” he said.

Another factor, according to Nambiar, is that more people are travelling far more frequently now, increasing the demand for air tickets, while the corresponding increase in the number of seats is lesser.

“Earlier, expatriates used to travel once or twice in a year. Nowadays, they travel five to seven times in a year. The total population in the UAE has doubled, and the number of hotel rooms and events happening here too has gone up. Various airlines are forecasting their demand and fare structure one year in advance, on the basis of projected demands,” said Nambiar.

The peak season will continue until the first week of September, and prices should come down after the Onam festival “Airlines are capitalising on the seasonal demand. Some airlines, especially the Indian national carrier, should deploy additional flights to keep the airfare under control,” said Punnakkan Mohammed Ali, an Indian Social worker.

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