The cancellation of all international flights by India’s Jet Airways, including those between Qatar and Indian cities, combined with the imminent traffic peak period due to the upcoming summer vacations have put enormous pressure on Indian expatriates living in the country, as the cost of airfares soars.
While the overall fare table on different Indian routes has increased in the range of 30 to 40 percent over the past few weeks, last-minute fares on key routes have impacted Indian expatriates the most.
“This sharp increase in prices is mainly driven by cancellation of flights by Jet Airways,” Cozmo Travel Operations Manager Bujair Mohammed said.
With Jet Airways canceling all flights on a number of India-Qatar routes, Mohammed said, Indian expatriates are bound to either choose expensive direct tickets or opt for complicated and burdensome re-routings.
“More than 700,000 Indians live in Qatar and many of them visit their home country during the summer holidays. The Jet Airways crisis has happened at a time when Indian expatriates generally book air tickets to visit India,” Mohammed noted.
Providing a comparative figure, Mohammed said airfares on most of the Qatar-India routes have gone by up to 40 percent.
"The return ticket cost on Doha-Delhi route for travels during the peak summer season has increased from the range of QR2,400 to QR3,000 in 2018 to the range of QR3,200- QR4,000 this year. Other destinations in India like Mumbai, Bangalore, and cities in the south Indian state of Kerala have also seen the same increase in airfares,” the Doha-based Cozmo Travel official said.
Mohammed said that Indian expatriates are unlikely to get respite from high airfares at least for the next three months when the demand will continue to be very high.
An official of Doha-based Acon Travels & Tours echoed the same view. “Peak season, coupled with the cancellation of flights by Jet Airways has made travel expensive for Indian expatriates especially during the summer holidays. There is an increase of at least 30-40 percent in average prices of tickets to different Indian destinations this summer compared to the previous ones,” the official said.
A number of Indian expatriates, who are at the receiving end, have rued such a sharp rise in airfares.
“I had to shell out as many as 40,000 Indian rupees (more than QR2,000) for one way travel from Delhi to Doha via Colombo on Sri Lankan Airlines recently. To my utter surprise, this was the lowest fare available and that too on an indirect flight that took 12 hours to reach Doha from Delhi via Colombo. I had no choice but to accept this high fare as I had to join back office,” Jawed Ahmed, an Indian expatriate living in Doha for the last five years, said.
A frequent flier on the Doha-Delhi route, Ahmed said he never came across such a situation in the last five years when he had to pay such a high price for one way travel from Delhi to Doha.
“Even during peak seasons earlier, the lowest return ticket used to be in the range of QR1,500 to QR2,500. But this year, even before the start of the summer vacations, I had to shell out such a high amount for a one-way ticket,” Ahmed said.
Subhash Ghosh, another Indian expatriate working with a a private firm in Doha, said he had to pay a very substantial amount for booking air tickets for his family of four this year.
“Generally, we travel to India in July or August when the schools of my children in Qatar are closed. Earlier, the average cost for a return ticket of four persons to my destination in India around this time used to be less than QR10,000. This time, I have to pay around QR13,000. I am left with no other choice but to cut other expenses to make up for it,” Ghosh said.
Meanwhile, Qatar Airways has asked the Indian authorities to allow them to increase the number of seats on their flights to India.
According to a recent report by Indian news agency PTI, Qatar Airways has sought the addition of more seats on high volume routes such as Mumbai, New Delhi, and Bangalore. The arrangement has been requested on a temporary basis and without formal changes to the existing weekly seat capacity entitlement under the 2009 Qatar-India bilateral aviation framework.
In its request, Qatar Airways has said that if the number of seats were not increased, Indian travelers would be forced to choose expensive tickets.
“Qatar Airways believes that the proposed contingency plan is a sound and practical way to address the financial and emotional stress that Indian travelers are set to experience in the coming weeks. We are extremely proud of the great contribution made by Indian nationals to our airline and to our nation and we seek to be a loyal and reliable partner in the face of adversity,” PTI has quoted Qatar Airways as saying.
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