 "Devotees gather to take a holy dip at the Sangam during Maha Kumbh Mela 2025, in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, Monday, January 27, 2025. PTI")
Crores of people are taking a dip at the Maha Kumbh Mela’s sangam in Uttar Pradesh’s Prayagraj.
From an increase in footfall to handling night flights for the first time in 106 years and receiving international flights for the first time in 93 years, the typically quiet airport in the holy city is breaking records.
The cost of flights to Prayagraj is rising dramatically as Maha Kumbh 2025 progresses.
The development comes ahead of the Mauni Amavasya snan (royal bath) on January 29.
Here’s all we know about it.
Prayagraj airfares surge
Travel websites show return tickets from Chennai to Prayagraj on January 28 and 30 can cost up to Rs 53,000, as per The Times of India.
On these dates, a round-trip ticket from nearby Kolkata costs more than Rs 35,000.
The cost of tickets from Mumbai to Prayagraj ranges from Rs 22,000 to Rs 60,000.
For a straight one-way ticket, pilgrims going from Bengaluru would need to pay anything from Rs 26,000 to Rs. 48,000.
This abrupt increase in airfare contrasts with the around Rs 5,000 that would normally be paid for a one-way ticket to these destinations.
A similar surge is seen around the three remaining snan dates – February 3 (Basant Panchmi); February 12 (Maghi Purnima), and February 26 (Maha Shivratri and concluding day of the Maha Kumbh).
The Second Shahi Snan commemorates the event when one of the first sages, Rishabh Dev, broke his protracted vow of silence and immersed himself in the waters of the Sangam, draws the largest congregation of pilgrims to the Kumbh Mela.
According to Skyscanner, the number of bookings on January 28 increased by 675 per cent in comparison to a normal day.
The report suggests the number of bookings has increased by 1,776 per cent from the same time last year, when Prayagraj hosted no events.
For flyers in India, the excessive fare spike during the holiday season has always been an issue.
A parliamentary group suggested in February of last year that the government create regulations to curb unexpected increases in airfare.
Also read: Maha Kumbh Mela 2025: Why Hindu akharas that lead Amrit Snan are significant
Online search increases
Skyscanner reports that travel interest in the auspicious holiday has significantly increased.
Searches for domestic travel in February increased during the week of January 20. A rise in searches for adjacent airports, like Varanasi, suggests that people are becoming more interested in taking detours.
The weekly increases in searches for the Hyderabad-Prayagraj, Pune-Prayagraj, and Prayagraj-Mumbai routes were 2,815 per cent, 1,345 per cent, and 870 per cent, respectively.
Important holy dip dates (January 13, January 14, January 29, February 3, February 12, February 26) have generated interest in international routes.
The top five foreign cities with the highest search interest for Maha Kumbh 2025 travel to Prayagraj are Dubai, London, Abu Dhabi, Singapore, and Doha.
Processing platform Atlys has observed a spike in visa applications mainly attributed to visitors from the USA and the UK.
Also read: Explained: Maha Kumbh and the multi-crore mela economy
Government intervenes
In response to the dramatic increase in prices during this year’s Maha Kumbh, Union Aviation Secretary Vumlunmang Vualnam asked for an urgent meeting with airlines on Monday, according to The Times of India.
The government will probably ask airlines to explain the number of tickets sold at all of the price points.
Before this, Union Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu had promised to examine the pattern of steadily rising airfare costs.
“I really want to delve into this issue (and) how to make them a little more accessible, available for the people of this country,” Naidu had said.
In January, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation approved 81 additional flights in order to raise Prayagraj connectivity to 132 flights from across India.
But the demand exceeded the supply by a significant margin.
“We are seeing tremendous enthusiasm from not just India but among the diaspora and foreigners too for the Maha Kumbh. Airfares have gone up as demand is far greater than supply. Accommodation is also hard to get,” Anil Kalsi, vice president of the Travel Agents Federation of India, was quoted as saying by Moneycontrol.
Also read: Meet the women Naga Sadhus at Maha Kumbh
Crores of pilgrims at Maha Kumbh
People from both domestic and other countries are flocking to the Maha Kumbh.
Authorities are keeping a careful eye on the situation to guarantee accessibility for all pilgrims due to the increase in travel interest and rising expenses.
Since its opening on January 13, the Mahakumbh has welcomed almost 12 crore visitors.
1.17 crore individuals bathed in the Sangam on Sunday until the late afternoon, according to the most recent official statistics released by the Uttar Pradesh government.
With inputs from agencies