The Chamber of Trade and Industry petitioned Union Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu on Tuesday to slap an immediate upper cap on domestic airfares, accusing commercial carriers of predatory pricing as festival and wedding travel takes off.
Ticket prices have jumped nearly 50 percent over the past 15 days. That sudden squeeze has left middle-class families and small merchants stranded just as millions prepare to travel for the Chhath festival and the upcoming wedding season starting November 20. On several key trunk routes out of New Delhi, fares did not merely rise. They doubled.
A ground survey conducted by the traders' body revealed steep surges on short and medium-haul domestic routes originating from the national capital. A one-way ticket from Delhi to Darbhanga has climbed to ₹20,000, while seats on the Delhi-Patna sector are fetching ₹18,000. Travel to southern and western commercial hubs faces similar markups, with Delhi to Mumbai priced at ₹15,000 and Delhi to Bengaluru hovering between ₹16,000 and ₹18,000. Flights to Ahmedabad stand at ₹11,000, while Delhi-Hyderabad fares range between ₹11,000 and ₹15,000.
The math is punishing. Families traveling in groups face catastrophic outlays for routine domestic travel that traded at a fraction of these levels only days earlier.
The sharp increase in airfares is affecting not only businesspeople but also middle-class families and ordinary passengers who were planning to travel during the festive and wedding seasons. Millions of people want to travel to their hometowns to celebrate the festival and attend weddings, but the steep rise in ticket prices is forcing many to reconsider their travel plans.
Brijesh Goyal, Chairman, Chamber of Trade and Industry
Travelers heading east to Bihar for Chhath have taken the hardest hit, as airlines cash in on non-negotiable family deadlines.
| Route (From Delhi) | Current Surveyed Fare | Booking Pressure Sector |
|---|---|---|
| Delhi – Darbhanga | ₹20,000 | Festival / Chhath Rush |
| Delhi – Patna | ₹18,000 | Festival / Chhath Rush |
| Delhi – Bengaluru | ₹16,000 – ₹18,000 | Wedding / Business Hub |
| Delhi – Mumbai | ₹15,000 | Trunk Business Route |
| Delhi – Hyderabad |
To break the pricing chokehold, the trade body placed a five-point charter of demands before the Civil Aviation Ministry. First, it sought direct administrative intervention to check price gouging during peak holiday corridors. Second, it demanded a statutory upper fare limit on every domestic route to eliminate arbitrary surge algorithms.
Yet regulatory caps alone cannot fix supply distortions. CTI pressed the ministry to institute a transparent, distance-calibrated fare framework, arguing that airlines cannot rationally charge comparable sums for a 500-kilometre jump and a 1,500-kilometre cross-country sector.
Fourth, the body urged the Directorate General of Civil Aviation to mandate immediate frequency bumps on oversubscribed sectors, focusing specifically on Delhi-Patna, Delhi-Darbhanga, Delhi-Mumbai, and Delhi-Bengaluru. Finally, CTI called on the Centre to clear pathways for two to three new scheduled carriers, arguing that entrenched airline consolidation continues to strangle genuine price competition.
Market Context: Airline capacity in India remains tightly held among a handful of surviving operators following high-profile insolvencies over recent years. When holiday traffic surges against rigid fleet numbers, dynamic revenue-management algorithms rapidly ratchet economy seats into executive-class price territory.
Civil Aviation Ministry officials have taken note of the representation as airline schedules come under scrutiny ahead of the peak November 20 wedding rush.
| ₹11,000 – ₹15,000 |
| Commercial / Family Travel |
| Delhi – Ahmedabad | ₹11,000 | Regional Corridor |