Air Fare HIKE from June 1: Check how much air travel will cost you DISTANCE-WISE | Details inside

The government has increased the airfare charges with effect from June 1, 2021. The Civil Aviation Ministry has raised the lower limit on fares by 13 to 16 percent, as per an official order.  

No changes have been made to the upper limits on fares. The step has been taken in order to help the airlines amid the second wave of coronavirus pandemic which has led to a significant reduction in air travel.

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"With respect to amount of fares to be charged by the Airlines for journey on a particular sector, the sectors classified on basis of approx duration of flight and for such classes, the min and max fares chargeable are as under," ANI tweeted.

The lower and upper limits on airfares were imposed in the country based on flight duration when services were resumed on May 25, 2020, after a two-month lockdown.

According to the notification, the lower limit for flights under 40 minutes of duration will be increased by 13 percent that is from Rs 2,300 to Rs 2,600. While flights with a duration between 40 minutes and 60 minutes will have a lower limit of Rs 3,300.

Similarly, for flights of duration between 60-90 minutes airfare will be charged at Rs 4,000, 90-120 minutes at Rs 4,700, 150-180 minutes at Rs 6,100 and 180-210 minutes will cost Rs 7,400.

Currently, the airfare for flights in the above period is cheaper by Rs 300 to Rs 1,000. In other words, for instance, a Delhi-Mumbai flight will cost Rs 700 more than the current fare. An increase in airfares has been attributed on the capacity of the load factors of the passengers.

A sudden increase of coronavirus cases in the second wave of COVID pandemic showed a decrease in domestic air travel. "In view of the sudden surge in the number of active COVID 19 cases across the country, decrease in passenger traffic and passenger load factor, the existing capacity cap of 80 per cent capacity may be read as 50 per cent capacity," MoCA said in the order.

The domestic fare price limit will not include taxes and airport development fees (ADF), which will have to be paid by the passengers. Earlier, the government had raised airfares by 10-30 percent in February 2021.