Airfares surge near 40% in two months; Mumbai-Chennai route sees maximum hike

Airfares have increased by up to 40 per cent between February and March due to variouschallenges faced by the airlines industry, including the grounding of planes by Jet Airways, pilot shortage and safety issues of the Boeing Max 737 planes. The average rise recorded for metro and non-metro routes was 29 per cent and 9 per cent, as per the report, the Economic Times quoted Cleartrip as saying.

The highest average rise of 39 per cent was recorded on the Mumbai-Chennai route. It was followed by a 38 per cent rise on the Mumbai-Delhi route. Chennai-Madurai recorded the maximum hike of 24 per cent in airfares in the 'non-metro routes' category.

After the Directorate General of Civil Aviation decided to ground all Boeing 737 Max planes in India, Spice Jet had stopped flying 12 planes, which amounted to 17 per cent of its fleet capacity. Jet Airways had also grounded five Boeing planes.

Recently, an Indigo flight bound for Nagpur from Pune- an Airbus A320 Neo was grounded soon after take-off due to "excessive-engine vibrations", making it the sixth incident of midair glitches in the past two weeks alone.

(Edited by: Nehal Solanki)

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