Airfares to Goa

Airfares to Goa already hiked for festive period in December :

According to a PTI report yesterday airfares to Goa have already sky-rocketed for the forthcoming Christmas and New Year holiday period. The minimum fare from Delhi to Goa for December 24, 2009, the day that practically marks the start of Christmas and New Year celebrations, has already touched Rs. 8,715, while the maximum fare goes up to Rs 19,400. The minimum fare from Mumbai is Rs 3,228, while the maximum can go up to Rs. 23,910. The fares are inclusive of taxes. Airlines are learnt to be considering a 5% fare hike during Durga Puja and Diwali in some routes where traffic increases considerably in the festive season.

Considering minimum air tickets price to the coastal state ranges between Rs. 4,400 and Rs 4,500 from Delhi for different airlines anytime in November, air travel will be at least twice as expensive during the festival time in December. "Basically Air tickets are priced based on demand. Trend for the past many years suggests that a lot of people will fly to Goa. Even hotels rates are high during this period," said Samyukta Sridharan, Chief Commercial Officer, SpiceJet. This could be a factor why even low cost airlines are not offering cheap air tickets . Interestingly, the budget airlines tickets are priced higher than Full Service Carriers in most cases. For Instance, the minimum fare ex-Delhi on SpiceJet on December 24 is Rs 10,724, going up to Rs. 13,824, while the Indigo ticket will cost Rs 12,024 as compared with Rs 8,715 on Kingfisher and Rs 9,724 on Jet Airways.

According to Sridharan, tickets for travel between December 22 and January 2 will be priced higher and people are willing to buy those tickets. This increase in airline airfares makes the destination more expensive compared to many South East Asian capitals, where one can get an air ticket for about Rs. 9,500. Avis India .