Airfares shoot up on routes with strong Go First presence

MUMBAI: Air fares for the next few days on tourist routes with strong Go First presence have shot up after its bankruptcy announcement, leaving those who had booked the airline's tickets from Mumbai/Delhi to places such as Srinagar, Leh and Phuket till May 5-the airline has suspended all its flights till Friday-staring at costly alternatives. On the other hand, air fares for travel between metros have not been impacted so far.
With its comparatively cheaper fares and good connectivity, Go First has been immensely popular on Delhi-Leh and Mumbai-Srinagar routes, followed by Chennai-Port Blair and Delhi-Srinagar. Consequently, fares are now high on these routes.
For Go First and also for some other airlines, the hour-and-a-half-long flight from Delhi to Leh and the two-and-a-half-hour-long flight from Mumbai to Srinagar stand out from the rest of the domestic routes for a particular reason. Directorate General of Civil Aviation data shows that in March this year and in May last year, Go First earned a neat percentage of its revenue from tickets sold in the highest fare bracket on these two routes. Fares touch the highest bracket when the demand is high, the lower brackets are gone.
"With each passing week, Go First was operating a smaller volume of flights, but it had a strong presence in Srinagar," said Ameya Joshi, an aviation analyst. "On metro routes, it wasn't particularly strong of late and so airfares haven't shot up significantly post the bankruptcy announcement. It's inching upwards though. But if capacity is not back by mid-May, it could hurt passengers as fares would be up, or it could hurt tourism as passenger volumes might go down," he added. Currently, Go First has suspended all its flights till May 5.
Demand for domestic air travel has been high in the past six months and with their comparatively cheaper fares, airlines such as Go First and SpiceJet have been flying packed - these are the only two carriers that consistently registered a passenger load factor of over 90% between November 2022 and March 2023. Even after the bankruptcy announcement, unaware passengers fell for its cheaper fares. On Wednesday, Ishaan Ghai tweeted that he had booked a "family vacation trip from Delhi to Phuket and back last night via Go First. How can they sell tickets if they're bankrupt and doubtful of flying. Please stop ticket sales and save unaware customers..." Another user said, "Requesting you to please help us get compensated for the difference in last minute bookings as our cost has escalated."