Eid: A surge in demand for air travel leads to airfare hikes

Highlights:

• Four local airlines operate around 75 flights (150 round trips) daily on eight domestic routes.
• Around 7,000-8,000 passengers fly daily on domestic routes
• The rise in demand for plane tickets during the Eid season is a normal trend  

The local airlines are experiencing a favourable business season as many individuals are returning to their hometowns by aircraft to celebrate Eid-ul Azha, which is scheduled to take place on 29 June.

Consequently, airfares for most domestic routes have significantly increased, with some routes seeing fares double compared to regular times.

According to the airliners, the routes experiencing high demand include Dhaka-Saidpur, Dhaka-Rajshahi, Dhaka-Sylhet, and Dhaka-Chattogram, where occupancy rates have surged to 100% as opposed to the usual 60%-80% on average.

On Monday, US-Bangla Airlines displayed online ticket prices ranging from Tk5,299 to Tk11,000 for the Dhaka-Saidpur route for 28 June (Wednesday). Only a few seats were available at these prices. The regular minimum ticket price for this route, according to the airline, is Tk3,500.

However, the airliners said the increase in ticket prices does not exceed 10% for most seats, which are typically intended for last-minute purchases. The rapid online sale of railway tickets has also contributed to the growing demand for air tickets.

"If you book your ticket one month before the Eid journey, you can buy it at a regular price. The rise of the ticket price is related to high demand, and also to rapid selling of railway tickets in this season," Kamrul Islam, general manager of US-Bangla, told TBS.

The sale of advance railway tickets for Eid-ul-Azha took place on 14-18 June, with return tickets made available on 22-26 June.

Implementing state-of-the-art technologies and adding over 1,500 powerful servers to their system, the Shohoz authorities carried out a herculean task of managing over 35 million hits per hour during the advance ticket sale period, said sources at the company.

The number of daily flights from eight domestic airports is around 75 (150 round trip), which are operated by four local airliners, including Biman, US-Bangla, Novoair, and Air Astra, according to industry insiders.

Around 7,000-8,000 passengers fly daily through these airlines, as per speculation. The rise in demand during the Eid season is the usual trend.   

However, after the inauguration of Padma Bridge, the Jashore and Barishal routes are out of a busy schedule as airliners have already cut their flights on these routes. 

Meanwhile, private airliners like US-Bangla and Novoair have increased the number of flights in some of the high-demanded routes.

"We have the highest rush on Saidpur and Rajshahi routes. However, we increased only one flight in the Dhaka-Rajshahi route centring on Eid," said Kamrul Islam of US-Bangla.

"If we count the round trip tickets during the Eid season, I would say that our business does not increase compared to normal time, because the return flight is almost empty," he added.

The country's largest private airliner US-Bangla operates 35 flights (70 roundtrips) on domestic routes per day.

Sources said Novoair has increased the number of daily flights from three to five on the Saidpur route, and from two to four on the Rajshahi route centring this Eid. 

Almost 100% of tickets for these routes up to Wednesday were sold out, according to the Novoair sources. 

Regarding fares going up to a maximum of Tk11,000, Novoair Managing Director Mofizur Rahman told TBS, "Such fares were charged for a small number of flights in some routes. I think such fare applies to a maximum of five seats out of 70 in a flight. However, the aircraft are empty on their return flights."

Regarding the Cox's Bazar route, he said, "There is no pressure on this route for the week after Eid. There is no demand for Cox's Bazar tickets due to various reasons including the economy and weather."

The online ticket prices ranged from Tk5,299 to Tk9,800 for the Dhaka-Cox's Bazar route on Monday. However, a roundtrip ticket for that route cost Tk8,500 on 22 June. 

The newly launched Air Astra is currently operating nine flights on three routes.

Sakib Hasan Shuvo, a deputy manager of the airlines, said they have a rush on the Chattogram and Saidpur routes.