The cyclone struck City of Chennai reopened its airport on Tuesday. But the air travel fares are blowing a huge hole in the pockets of customers as almost all the airlines hiked up their prices. On Tuesday the fare for traveling from Chennai to Delhi cost a whopping Rs. 30,000 for one side in the Low-Cost Carrier. For the full-service carrier, the price was Rs. 31,200.
The Airport was completely submerged after Cyclone Vardah, but resumed operations on Tuesday by 4:30 A.M. The shutdown of the airport on Monday due to Cyclone Vardah is considered the reason for this hike. Hundreds of passengers were stranded and as a result, the airlines waived the rescheduling charges for these passengers. Those who planned for spot tickets on Tuesday were flabbergasted by seeing the prices of travel. Yatra chief Sharat Dhall in a press release said, “Airfares have skyrocketed to more than 100% due to cyclone Vardah. The impact on other modes of transport has led to this sudden rise and until the State sees normalcy, we will find fares higher than normal for Chennai.”
As the airlines are mainly accommodating those who were stranded on Monday at the airport, the airlines automatically sell the last minute cancellations with the highest window. R.N. Chaubey, Aviation Secretary has requested the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to look into this issue. A senior DGCA official said: “On Monday we had asked all scheduled domestic airlines to adjust stranded passengers on flights once operations resume from the city and not to charge any rebooking charges from such passengers. The issue of fares shooting up will be examined.”
The Airlines and DGCA declared that the reason for the hike is mainly because Chennai airport is filled with passengers that were stranded during Cyclone Vardah.
