Independence Day: Airfares to Goa, Jaipur, Dubai, Singapore soar sky-high

Independence Day: Airfares to Goa,Dubai, soar sky-high 

New Delhi: After summer vacations of the children, people start planning for the short vacations in August due to Independence Day and festive holidays. In fact, advance booking, too, stay relatively high for this period. Owing to this trend, airfares from Mumbai to destinations such as Goa, Jaipur, Dehradun, Dubai, Singapore have significantly gone up.

The date for travel this week is August 15 (Thursday), with return on August 18 (Sunday). Goa has become one of the most popular short holiday destination. With so much in demand, the airfares from Mumbai to Dubai or Bangkok are cheaper than flights for Goa (morning departure and afternoon departure for return).

"Demand for air travel dips in June, July, August; except during long weekends which typically bring higher airfares on flights out of cities like Mumbai, Delhi. Airlines don’t offer the cheapest tickets in the lowest buckets for Independence weekend travel. You can book six months in advance, but you won’t find the cheapest fare being offered during the Independence Day weekend," said an airline official to the national daily, requesting anonymity. 

Indiver Rastogi of Thomas Cook India said, "With the long weekend around the corner, Thomas Cook India has observed a growth in demand from travelers seeking to enjoy a quick break. While most travelers have already booked well in advance, those who are looking to make any last-minute holiday plans will see a significant spike in airfare and would end up paying a higher amount on certain routes. Routes like Mumbai-Bangkok, Mumbai-Malaysia, Chennai-Dubai, Delhi-Sri Lanka are already seeing an approx 30-40% surge in airfares for those who are looking to book last minute."

He further added that international destinations have seen a high demand because of easy visa facilities. It may be noted that the popular destinations include Singapore, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Yas Island, along with Malaysia, Indonesia’s Bali and beyond, Thailand and Mauritius.

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Daniel D’souza of SOTC Travel said, "We have observed a 15-20% rise in bookings in comparison to last year."

As per data from travel portal, the cheapest available return airfares on non-stop flights for travel from Mumbai on Tuesday for August 15-18 are, for Delhi it's Rs 9,000, Goa 12,000, Jaipur 16,000, Dehradun Rs 19,000, Kochi Rs 14,000, Kolkata Rs 11,000 and Bengaluru Rs 6,500. It may be noted that the Rs 12,000 return fare for Goa is for a 9pm flight from Mumbai on August 15 and 4am from Goa on August 18. The fare on a flight from Mumbai around 7am and from Goa around 3pm is Rs 24,000. However, fares to Kolkata is Rs 15,000, Bengaluru Rs 8,000 on flights with better timings are high.