Srinagar, March 22: As air fares to and from Srinagar to various destinations in the country, including the national capital of Delhi, have touched the skies, there are signs that tourism and development activities are facing the pinch.
Several travel agents have reported cancellation of travel plans by tourists, especially groups, as the previously-booked itineraries have suddenly become unaffordable.
Some government departments and agencies are also reporting change in outward and inward travel plans due to high costs, which have exceeded the approved budgets.
What is particularly getting impacted are travels for technical support from external experts and specialists for government departments and agencies, in view of the travel costs exceeding the previously-approved travel budgets.
“Most of the tourist groups travel on a pre-determined budgets. In most cases, airline travel costs for a group of 5- 20 people have exceeded by Rs 50,000 to one lakh, making them change their plans altogether”, Aman Gupta, a travel agent based at Connaught Place, New Delhi, told Ziraat Times.
There are also instances where departments had lately to cancel travel plans related to meetings and development exchanges due to exorbitant air fares.
Business and educational exchanges are also reported to be hit due to the sudden high spike in air fares between Srinagar and rwat of the country.
Pertinently, a Parliamentary Standing Committee has recently expressed its concern that the high air fares charged by some airline operators in the domestic sector, and the practices being used in costing, were misleading the public and forcing passengers to pay more.
“The level of misinformation can be gauged from the fact that even after the last tickets have been sold, the same number of seats show on the website, as indicated before the tickets sale. This indicates that airline operators are misleading the public and forcing passengers to pay more,” the panel said in the Demand for Grants (2023-24) report of the Civil Aviation Ministry.
In view of the above, it recommended that the Ministry should formulate appropriate guidelines regarding rationalisation of fares and publishing the correct information on the website of the airlines.
It also pointed out that ‘Predatory Pricing’ is being restored to by the domestic airlines sector. “A particular airline may sell its air tickets at such a low level that other competitors cannot compete and are forced to exit the market. A company that does this will see initial losses, but eventually it benefits by driving competition out of the market and raising its prices again,” said the report.
The committee desired to know whether the aviation regulator, the DGCA had at any point of time intervened to check the fares of air tickets. It also expressed concern at the fact that in the domestic sector, private airlines are charging different fares for the same sector, route and same direction of flights.
This is specifically so for the northeastern region and hilly areas including Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, where the prices of domestic sector tickets are, sometimes, even more than the international airline sector prices, the committee noted.
The Committee took note of the fact that after the repeal of the Air Corporations Act, 1953, the airfare is market driven and depends on market fares, and is neither established nor regulated by the government. “It notes the DGCA’s comments that the airfares were regulated for a fixed period during the Covid pandemic in compliance with Aircraft Act, 1934 and the regulation was withdrawn as the Covid pandemic abated and that airlines are free to fix reasonable tariffs under the Aircraft Rules, 1937, with regard to cost of operation, services, reasonable profit and generally prevailing tariff,” said the report.
Several business chambers, including Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Travel Agents Association of Kashmir (TAAK) have also expressed their concern of the high air fares and have called for governmental action to bring the fares in line with the general national air fares.
