Air travel just got costlier. As oil marketing companies hiked aviation turbine fuel (ATF) prices by 2.8 per cent today, loss-hit airlines acted quickly and announced a steep 10 per cent rise in airfares from August 1. With this, full-service carriers have hiked fares by a total of around 50 per cent spread over half-a-dozen small hikes in this calendar year alone.

Market leader Jet Airways said it would raise its economy class airfares by 10 per cent across sectors, while business class seats would cost 5 per cent more. The UB group, which owns the Kingfisher-Deccan combine, also announced a 10 per cent hike in fares on all sectors and classes for both airlines. State-run Air India-Indian also said it was considering an increase in fares effective August 1, in view of the rising ATF prices. Budget carriers such as SpiceJet and IndiGo are yet to take a call on increasing fares.

With this rise, passengers would now be paying anywhere between Rs 100-500 more for tickets on different sectors. Analysts say that sectors like Delhi-Mumbai which have a basic fare of anywhere over Rs 3,000, would now cost nothing less than Rs 3,300-3,400 per ticket. Along with fuel surcharge, the total price of the ticket would now stand at Rs 7,000-7,500. In January this year, the total price was Rs 4,500-5,000 per ticket.

The decision to increase airfares by a disproportionately high 10 per cent comes as airlines are combating mounting losses, expected to be in the region of Rs 9,000 crore this fiscal. “It must be understood that we have not hiked airfares every time there has been a rise in ATF prices. There is a big element of jet fuel price increases that we have not been able to pass on to the customer, and this hike is aimed at reducing that gap,” a UB Group official said.

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