How expensive are flight tickets to flood-hit Kerala?
After a tweet by Suhel Seth slamming Indian airlines in the wake of the Kerala floods started making the rounds, airlines responded by saying that ticket fares depend on multiple factors. Seth tweeted that these airlines should be answerable to the DGCA. Absolute shame!" he wrote. Airlines, however, have capped their fares according to the DGCA guidelines. Airlines have been requested to cap their maximum fare on longer routes around Rs 10,000, while it is Rs 8,000 for shorter routes to or from Kerala, as mentioned in an ANI report. In fact, most flights are either sold out or not available for as long as August 26. Jet Airways do not have any flights till August 27 from Delhi to Kochi. On August 27, the cheapest one-way flight on the route is for Rs 7,663. From Kochi to Delhi, there are no Jet Airways flights till August 31. The cheapest on that day is for Rs 5,399. When it comes to Mumbai to Kochi, the cheapest one-way Jet Airways flight is available on August 27 before which there are no flights available. Flights from Kochi to Mumbai are available from August 26 for Rs 5,399. GoAir, too, does not have flights available till August 26. However, the airlines is running special flights between Mumbai and Thiruvananthapuram. Similarly, IndiGo too is rolling out three additional flights every day from the Kochi Naval Base and Bengaluru and Chennai. There are also no direct flights between Kochi and Delhi till August 27. IndiGo flights between Delhi and Kochi are also all connecting ones before August 27. SpiceJet is also flying special flights from Bengaluru, Thiruvananthapuram, Kozhikode and Chennai to multiple destinations. Amid the devastating floods, cancellation of hotel and airline tickets has increased significantly. According to reports, around 20% of air tickets have been cancelled as well as 50% of hotel reservations. Multiple portals and airlines have waived off cancellation charges.