Hyderabad-Patna flights cut by half before Chhath: What travellers should know

Chhath runs from 13 to 16 November. Airlines have scheduled 302 weekly departures from Patna this month, down from 377 in October 2025, Business Standard reports using Cirium data. That's nearly 20% lower. Darbhanga is down from 67 to 55 a week. For people flying home from metros, there's less capacity than last festive season.

Indian airlines scheduled 22,306 weekly domestic flights for November, 606 fewer than October 2025. Air India's cut was the largest, down 14.9% to 3,101, while IndiGo fell 2.7% to 13,697. The comparison uses October last year because Diwali fell then. November's schedule is still higher than this October's, Business Standard says.

Patna's 75 fewer departures work out to about 12% of the national fall of 606, by our calculation. One route stands out: Hyderabad-Patna dropped from 90 weekly flights to 42, a 53% cut. Delhi-Hyderabad and Hyderabad-Tirupati lost more in absolute numbers, but they had far larger schedules to begin with.

Assume every flight has 180 seats, which is our estimate and not Cirium's figure. Then 75 fewer weekly departures means about 13,500 fewer seats a week out of Patna. Darbhanga's 12 fewer flights would be about 2,160 seats. Real aircraft sizes vary, but the sum shows the scale at peak home-going time.

Patna Press reports Delhi-Patna fares at up to nearly three times the usual ₹6,000-8,000 on some dates. Amar Ujala reported a ₹20,000 starting fare for 10 November in a snapshot taken a month earlier. On 5-15 November, Mumbai-Darbhanga showed ₹11,120-30,532, while Darbhanga-Mumbai was around ₹6,000-7,000. Check your own dates, as these fares change daily.

Business Standard links the cuts to high fares, fuel costs and a weaker rupee, along with softer demand. IndiGo's load factor fell to 80.3% in July-September from 82.5% a year earlier. CEO Willie Walsh says December-quarter cuts will focus mainly on international routes, and that domestic festival demand is usually strong. An unnamed executive said high fares make planes harder to fill profitably.

Look at return fares too. Darbhanga-Delhi on 16-25 November showed ₹6,990-28,541 by airline. Trains are the backup: special 03294 runs Anand Vihar-Patna from 6 to 22 November, and Railwise lists Vande Bharat specials. Confirm on IRCTC. Remember that if every passenger on a waitlisted e-ticket stays unconfirmed after charting, they can't board.