Dampener for festival travel plans: SpiceJet, Jet hike fares by 25%

In a bad but expected news for air passengers, airfares have gone through the roof, with all scheduled carriers either having already hiked fares or being in the process of doing so.

Following the massive increase in price of jet fuel, which is now at an all-time high, airlines have started raising air fares by anywhere up to 30 percent with immediate effect.

Low-cost carrier (LCC) SpiceJet raised both spot and advance purchase fares from Tuesday evening by over 25 percent, reported Times of India . Spot fares of Delhi-Mumbai has now jumped to almost Rs 10,000 - up from the earlier Rs 6,000-7,000 range.

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Following its smaller rival SpiceJet,Jet Airways on Wednesday hiked fares by a steep 25 percent to mitigate the impact of the sharp fall in the rupee value and a near 15 per cent spike in oil prices of late.

“The airline has hiked its fares by 25 percent with immediate effect,” a Jet Airways source told PTI.

Asked whether the hike is on fuel surcharge or base fare, the source said, “it (increase) is in total fares.”

The move comes in the wake of a nearly 25 per cent fall in the rupee against the dollar and a recent 6.9 per cent hike in aviation turbine fuel.

International oil prices have been trading between USD 105 and USD 115 a barrel since the past few months and following the Syrian crisis, has seen more upward spurt.

Other airlines are also likely to follow suit in the near future.

Jet fuel (ATF) prices were hiked by a steep 6.9 per cent, taking the rate to Rs 75,031 per kilolitre (KL) from September 1. This hike had come on the back of two rounds of ATF price hikes effected in July and August by oil marketing companies.

ATF prices were increased by 5.8 per cent on July 1 and by another 6.3 per cent on August 1.

With inputs from PTI