The current growth trend indicates fares may rise further in the coming peak season that starts late next March and goes up to June. This is a departure from the earlier practice of reducing ticket prices drastically from 10 January onwards after the end of the peak Christmas and New Year season. Fuel constitutes nearly half the cost of the airlines and in a way decides whether an airlines logs profit or loss, the executive said. The current growth trend indicates fares may rise further in the coming peak season that starts late next March and goes up to June. “Airlines seem to be keeping the fares low for travel that is more than a fortnight away (which is typically leisure bookings) while raising the fares for the last fortnight (more business travel bookings).

Source: Mint February 21, 2017 05:06 UTC