Festival season pushes airfares skyward across India's major metros

Major Indian cities are experiencing a surge in airfares as the festival season approaches, with carriers implementing strategies to manage demand across high-traffic routes. Airlines operating between Delhi, Mumbai, and Hyderabad are deploying larger aircraft to maximize seat availability per flight, yet price pressures persist amid strong travel demand.

The increased capacity from larger planes has prevented acute seat shortages on these routes, according to industry observations. However, this supply-side expansion has not fully addressed the challenge of limited flight options during peak travel periods, particularly on specific dates and times preferred by passengers.

Travelers seeking flights during festival periods are finding fewer choices aligned with their schedules, even as total seat inventory grows. The mismatch between available seats and passenger preferences for particular departure times continues to support elevated pricing across these competitive routes.

Airlines have prioritized deploying wide-body and larger narrow-body aircraft on major metropolitan routes to capitalize on festival season demand. Despite these capacity increases, the concentration of travel on preferred dates remains a constraint that airfare pricing reflects.