Kullu-Delhi airfare hiked

Abhinav Vashisht

Kullu, MARCH 22

The national carrier Air India has increased the fares for the Kullu-Delhi sector for the upcoming tourist season. While earlier the maximum fare was nearly Rs 20,000 for one-way journey now the fare will be around Rs 23,000 from the month of April. The seats were generally available for the highest fare in the month of April and onwards.

Kullu Travel Agents Association patron Bhupinder Thakur said while on the other sectors the fare increases as the date comes nearer as seats fill up, for the Kullu-Delhi sector the airlines was providing only the highest fare, which were sometimes lowered a day or two earlier in case of less bookings.

Bhupinder demanded that the Kullu airport should be included in the Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik (UDAN) scheme to provide better facilities and cheaper air fares to commuters. He said the government should rope in other airlines to increase competition and promote the growth of tourism industry.

Earlier, the government had announced to put a cap on the fare for flights less than one-hour duration to Rs 2,500. However, the fares for flight of 45-minute duration between Kullu and Chandigarh were not capped and neither was any relief provided for over one-hour duration flights to Delhi.Aviation experts stated that the 70-seater aircraft was permitted to carry only around 35 passengers from Bhuntar airport due to short runway and load stipulations. Thus, the prices had to be kept on the higher side by the airline. They said that new players of the industry would be attracted to carry out operations to Kullu after the expansion of airport, which was under consideration.

The hefty airfares charged by the airline would make air travel out of reach of the common masses. Those associated with the tourism industry said that heavy fares charged by the airline were a deterrent for the tourists to opt for air travel. They demanded that the government should intervene and lower the fares of flights operating to Kullu to promote the tourism industry by introducing special scheme for areas not connected by rail.