Heat or not, Indians are flying high

While there is heightened demand for cooler destinations, places that are typically warm at this time are also seeing interest. Searing heat has not affected air travel, and high demand has kept fares elevated, industry executives said.

“We haven’t seen any impact on bookings or searches for the summer season on account of the heat wave. On the contrary, flight searches for May have seen an all-time high. Domestic flight travel searches for May and June 2024 are up by 20%, and for international, they are up by 70% as compared to last year," said Aloke Bajpai, CEO of travel booking platform ixigo.

Advance average air fares for a Delhi-Goa flight in May is around ₹5767, 6% higher than a year ago, ixigo data showed. Fares are 19% higher for Mumbai-Jaipur at ₹5,033, and up over 20% to ₹7200 for Delhi-Dharamshala.

Omnichannel travel platform Thomas Cook has also seen an increase of 10-30% in average advance fares to Sri Lanka and Nepal from various hubs such as Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Chennai for the upcoming summer, and an increased preference for Bhutan as well. For online travel platform Cleartrip, most popular destinations include Goa, Bagdodra, Srinagar, Port Blair, Varanasi, Bangkok, Phuket, Singapore, Dubai and Kuala Lumpur.

"It is likely that the summer of May 2024 may see extremely high domestic air traffic, which could range between 13 million and 14 million passengers," said Aashish Gupta, consulting CEO, the Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism and Hospitality.

In February, Mint reported that airline lease rates have shot up at a time of worldwide aircraft shortage, which is expected to show up in air fares. Aircraft deliveries have been delayed due to shortage of skilled labour and raw materials, and an engine recall by Pratt & Whitney.

Official numbers for April's air passenger traffic are not out yet, but rough calculations show around 13.3 million air passengers domestic passengers during the month. This is around 3% higher than last April, and over 20% higher than the air traffic registered in the same month during pre-pandemic year of 2019.

Air passenger numbers hit a record 470,751 on 21 April, crossing the previous record of 456,082 set in April 2023. For the January-April period, air traffic continues to be around 4% higher than the corresponding period last year. Demand is expected to maintain its momentum for May as well.

While the demand is traditionally strong in the summer season, the sentiment is stronger this year as there has been a shift in the mindset of Indian travellers since the covid-related restrictions eased, a top airline executive said. "People are looking to travel at any opportunity available. It is no longer an annual or bi-annual pilgrimage. This, coupled with summer holidays, more airports, and a wide variety of options that fit every budget, is resulting in record demand,"headded on condition of anonymity.

The heat wave has not curbed charter flights either. However, demand for private charters is muted traditionally between April and August, but the demand from political parties continue for charters during the ongoing election season.

“There is always a decline in demand for charter flights during the period between mid-April till August-end as primarily these months include summer and rainy season, and the high net-worth users of private jets prefer to go abroad for family vacations in countries which have a colder climate. They also do not prefer to visit any plants or facilities on the countryside during this period. The demand usually then picks up September onwards," Santosh Sharma, founder of Bookmyjet, an online booking portal for business jets, said.