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Commercial flights resumption: Enquiries for overseas travel picks up after govt opens skies

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“We are seeing a trend of travellers now eager to book long-haul destinations, fuelled by international borders reopening and relaxation of rules across the globe,” he said.

Enquiries for overseas travel destinations have picked up after the government announced that scheduled commercial international flights will resume from March 27. With more capacity getting added into the system, there will also be a dip in international air fares, which is expected to give a further fillip to travel.

To be sure, the travel industry is hoping for a good season ahead, as search queries have spiked and increasing number of travellers are looking for long haul destinations like Australia, US and the UK. Aloke Bajpai, co-founder and group CEO, ixigo told FE that travel search queries from India for instance, Australian cities like Melbourne, Adelaide, and Sydney have jumped 15-20% this month.

“We are seeing a trend of travellers now eager to book long-haul destinations, fuelled by international borders reopening and relaxation of rules across the globe,” he said.

Data patterns sourced from MakeMyTrip show that 96% of the searches are for the coming summer holiday season – with Dubai, Thailand, Maldives, Sri Lanka, London, Paris and Amsterdam ranking high on the consideration list of international destinations. “Booking patterns indicate that travellers are increasingly willing to splurge on stays or accommodations, and on hyperlocal experiences. Many are also actively choosing slow travel leading to long stays when planning their first international trip post the pandemic,” said the spokesperson for MakeMyTrip.

The airfares are also expected to find some reasonable levels, which had surged sharply over the last two years, as scheduled operations were halted due to the raging pandemic globally. While international travel continued under bubble agreements between countries, the airfares remained expensive, trading 20-25% higher compared with pre-pandemic levels.

For instance, New Delhi-Dubai average round trip fare in February 2020 (pre-Covid) on regular commercial flights was Rs 24,751. It surged 32% to Rs 32,651 in February 2022 under bubble flights. Similarly, New Delhi-Madrid round trip fare was Rs 48,418 in February 2020, which was up a sharp 39% to Rs 67,436 last month. Mumbai-Singapore round trip flight fare was Rs 31,471 pre-Covid, which jumped 11% to Rs 34,846 last month.

However, resumption of international commercial flights will also regularise the demand-supply balance resulting in lower international airfares. “With capacity coming back and with an increase in connectivity and more routes, we can expect a dip in international fares in the coming months,” Bajpai said.

Indian carriers are currently in the preparatory mode and are yet to announce their flight schedules. Willy Boulter, chief commercial officer, IndiGo said, “ The return to full international operations is very welcome and there is certainly much interest in the market for the resumption of flights to a number of destinations. IndiGo is adding back its international points in a phased manner, dependent on market demand, aircraft availability, slots, and other resources, as normal. Fares will move according to the demand/supply balance on specific markets.”

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