Ahead of peak festive season, airfares climb as much as 52% on major routes

Driven by strong festive-season demand, advance airfares across major Indian cities have risen by up to 52% for travel between October 19 and 25, compared to the peak festive period of last year (October 30 to November 5, 2024). Data shared by online travel aggregator ixigo shows that the Mumbai-Patna route has recorded the steepest increase, with average one-way non-stop fares soaring 52% to Rs 14,540 around the Diwali festive period of this year. On the Bengaluru-Lucknow and Mumbai-Kolkata sectors, fares have jumped 47% each, to Rs 9,899 and Rs 10,264 respectively.