Prices for air tickets to London from Mumbai have increased by 20 per cent due to lesser availability of seats, as per The Asian Age report. Travel agents say that pre-planned travellers had already booked more than half of the seats in April and May this year, leading to few seats remaining for other passengers.
"Mumbai-London is a major aviation corridor and the Olympics have considerably reduced the seat factor. Airfares on this sector have already risen by 20 per cent. Moreover, no airline, including British Airways, has added additional flights on the route to cater to the increasing demand. Apart from England's national carrier British Airways, Jet Airways, Air India and Kingfisher Airlines are the only Indian carriers to have direct flights to London," said a travel agent. According to travel agents, the situation has been worsened because of the Air India and Kingfisher crisis, which are running truncated flight schedules. Iqbal Mulla, President of the Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) said that apart from passengers, participants, games officials and journalists have also been booked on most of the flights, which is contributing to the low seat availability factor. "A ticket to London from Mumbai will not cost less than Rs 60,000 right now. The situation is likely to continue for the next fortnight," he said. Jay Bhatia, of Tulsidas Khimji Travels said that on an average, a Mumbai-London flight costs around Rs 40,000. "This has gone up by 20 per cent to Rs 60,000 over the last month. Majority seats were booked in April and May, 2012 itself and, the only option passengers now have is to take hopping flights from hubs like Dubai, but even they are just marginally cheaper," said Bhatia.
Click here to see the original article>"Mumbai-London is a major aviation corridor and the Olympics have considerably reduced the seat factor. Airfares on this sector have already risen by 20 per cent. Moreover, no airline, including British Airways, has added additional flights on the route to cater to the increasing demand. Apart from England's national carrier British Airways, Jet Airways, Air India and Kingfisher Airlines are the only Indian carriers to have direct flights to London," said a travel agent. According to travel agents, the situation has been worsened because of the Air India and Kingfisher crisis, which are running truncated flight schedules. Iqbal Mulla, President of the Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) said that apart from passengers, participants, games officials and journalists have also been booked on most of the flights, which is contributing to the low seat availability factor. "A ticket to London from Mumbai will not cost less than Rs 60,000 right now. The situation is likely to continue for the next fortnight," he said. Jay Bhatia, of Tulsidas Khimji Travels said that on an average, a Mumbai-London flight costs around Rs 40,000. "This has gone up by 20 per cent to Rs 60,000 over the last month. Majority seats were booked in April and May, 2012 itself and, the only option passengers now have is to take hopping flights from hubs like Dubai, but even they are just marginally cheaper," said Bhatia.