The number of people flying from Calcutta to Bangalore has gone up manifold over the years but the number of flights has not increased proportionately.
The result: high fares every holiday season, said regular fliers and tour operators.
On Thursday afternoon, the one-way fares from Calcutta to Bangalore for Saturday and Sunday varied between Rs 10,000 and Rs 11,000, compared with the usual range of Rs 6,500 to Rs 7,000. The fares, tour operators said, are set to go up further.
The one-way fares for Delhi were around the same, while those for Mumbai were slightly less.
Tour operators and airline officials said the Bangalore fares were high because Calcuttans working or studying there are flying back over the weekend after spending Durga Puja at home.
They said the one-way fares from Bangalore to Calcutta for Sashthi and Saptami were higher than the fares for Bangalore now because many of those who had come to spend the festival here had booked return tickets.
A Calcuttan who works at a software company in Bangalore paid Rs 30,000 for a round trip to Calcutta during the festive period. “I had booked the tickets more than a month back but the fare was still very high,” said the man who had arrived in the city on Saptami.
Another IT professional had booked a one-way ticket to Calcutta on October 12, for next day’s flight, for Rs 15,000. He had not booked a return ticket because of family issues, he said.
An engineer working for an IT major in Bangalore had tried to book tickets for Calcutta for the Puja three months back. “Even then the one-way fare to Calcutta was more than Rs 12,000. I have seen that except during the monsoon, the flights between Calcutta and Bangalore are always full. During the festival seasons, the fares shoot up exceptionally,” he said.
Tour operators attribute the trend of soaring fares during festivals to the problem of demand and supply.
Calcutta airport sources said the city now has 15 daily flights each to Bangalore and Mumbai. On the other hand, there are 25 daily flights to Delhi.
“There cannot be more flights to Mumbai because of slot issues at the airport,” said a Calcutta airport official.
But Bangalore has no such issues, said airport officials and tour operators.
“The demand is always high for Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad. A large number of Calcuttans work or study in Bangalore and Hyderabad and many patients go to Chennai for treatment,” said Manav Soni, chairman, eastern region, Travel Agents Association of India.
“Apart from Calcuttans, the flights carry passengers from northeastern states who do not have much connectivity with Bangalore and Hyderabad. But the number of seats has not gone up in keeping with the rise in demand,” Soni said.
Officials of at least two airlines explained the issue.
“IndiGo has 10 daily flights between Calcutta and Bangalore,” said an official. “Because of issues like shortage of aircraft and funds, several airlines are not planning to add flights to the sector.”
An official of another airline said the affordability of passengers was another factor they consider.
“In some sectors, if fares are too high, there would be hardly any takers. But in sectors like Bangalore people will pay to visit Calcutta during the Puja, irrespective of the fares,” the official said.
Bangalore has a large population of Calcuttans as well as people from the rest of Bengal.
In 2019, the then chief minister of Karnataka, B.S. Yediyurappa, had said there were more than 120 Bengali associations in Bangalore and over 13 lakh Bengalis were living in Karnataka.
An office-bearer of a Bengali association in Bangalore said the number could be much more because a large number of people from Bengal living there were not voters in Karnataka, including students and migrant labourers.