High airfare between Delhi, D’sala irks fliers

Ravinder Sood

Palampur, September 3

The Delhi-Dharamsala one-way airfare reached Rs 20,116 on Monday. Despite the tourist season being lean, firms have not reduced the airfare between Dharamsala and Delhi.

At present, Air India and SpiceJet are operating two flights each between Delhi and Dharamsala. Sources said most seats remained vacant, still the airfare was not being slashed.

Vijay Kumar, a Palampur-based businessman, who took a flight from Dharamsala to Delhi this week to get his ailing wife examined, had to shell out Rs 16,000 for a ticket.

Regular fliers are the worst affected. Naveen Sareen and Pavi Sareen, hoteliers, said in case, the airfare was not slashed, it could impact tourism.

They said most travel agencies booked air tickets via Chandigarh, Amritsar and Jammu for tourists coming to Kangra, where the airfare was almost the one-fourth.

The airfare from Delhi to Amritsar and Jammu is between Rs 4,000 and Rs 6,000 per passenger, whereas for Chandigarh, it is only Rs 3,000 or even less. “The airfare to Dharamsala is unreasonably high,” they said. “If the state and Central governments are unable to get the fare slashed, they can at least subsidise it,” Naveen Sareen said.

On Monday, the airfare between Bagdogra and Delhi was only Rs 3,744. “The airfare between Delhi and Srinagar is never increased from Rs 9000,” Sareen said.

Ram Subhag Singh, Additional Chief Secretary, Tourism and Civil Aviation, said the government already knew about it and he would soon write to the Government of India.

No room for bigger aircraft

• The airfares for Dharamsala remain high as bigger planes cannot land here. 
• The airfare from Delhi to Amritsar and Jammu is between Rs 4,000 and Rs 6,000 per passenger, whereas for Chandigarh, it is only Rs 3,000 or even less. 
• Besides the Gaggal airport in Kangra, there are two more domestic airports in Himachal at Shimla and Kullu. 
• As the Kullu airport is located between two hills it is difficult to expand it. The plane has to take a drop before landing at Kullu airport. 
• After the peak tourist months of May and June, the number of flights goes down.