Srinagar, London: Two hot selling destinations for Indian airlines this summer

Indian domestic carriers have added 35% more seats, the largest percentage increase in capacity, on the route Delhi to Srinagar, making it the ninth busiest route in the country this month. This is despite the airfare peaking to 40% on certain days.   

The capacity addition has been done keeping in mind the summer holiday rush and people travelling to hills. Air India. IndiGo and Akasa added over two lakh seats on the Delhi to Srinagar route this month compared to the same period last year, according to data by OAG, a global aviation data analytics platform.  

The Mumbai to Delhi remains the busiest domestic route in India with 658,000 seats, an increase of 9% vs last year followed by Bengaluru to Delhi with 431,100 seats, increasing capacity by 1%.

The airfares remain northwards in the range of 15-20% high on certain domestic metro to metro routes such Bengaluru to Delhi and Bengaluru to Mumbai. Airfare have tapered down on Bengaluru to Hyderabad, despite the capacity cuts by both Air Indian and IndiGo.

Domestic carriers have cut capacity on domestic sector and international sectors due to high aviation fuel prices, which has more than doubled to West Asia crisis. Air Indian has cut 22% capacity on domestic and 27% on international while IndiGo’s capacity cut is around 10-15%. It has temporarily stopped flights on six international routes.  

What is the impact on international sector?  

On the international sectors, Delhi to London Heathrow has seen the highest capacity addition with 15% more seats while Mumbai to Heathrow increased by 12% compared June 25, as airlines redirected capacity from the Middle East.  

The airfare on Delhi to London is 35% high when it comes to domestic carriers compared to 15% by Gulf carriers.

Mumbai to Dubai remains the busiest international route from India with 2.1 lakh seats, despite capacity reducing again by 10% vs June 25. The airfare is high in range of 10-15%.

The capacity on the Abu Dhabi to Mumbai route reduced by 18% down to 1 lakh seats. The airfare on this sector has come down due to moderate demand.