Chennai: Flight fares to Australia, New Zealand & Japan soar

CHENNAI: Flying between Chennai and destinations in Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Singapore has become a hassle and expensive due to absence of ‘air bubble’ flights.
Fewer flights and restriction on the number of passengers allowed have made the airfare expensive. One-way air fares to Australia for travel next month are in the range of Rs 1.4 lakh to 1.6 lakh. It cost Rs 35,000 to Rs 40,000 in the pre-Covid-19 days. One-way air fare to Tokyo is Rs 80,000 over triple its cost of Rs 25,000 pre-pandemic.
An airline official said airlines are allowed to take in only 50 to 60 passengers on aircraft with capacity of more than 150 to 200 passengers, to any destination across the world, to prevent spread of the new strain of the virus.”
“This makes it difficult for people to get tickets via transit hubs such as Dubai because the flights from Chenni to Dubai will already be full,” said Basheer Ahmed, of Metro Travels.