Are you a frequent traveller like me? It is time we sit down and replan our tours. I work in mumbai while my family stays in Karnataka. I shuttle between two places almost every weekend. Now, looks like this is not possible any more. The country's largest private airline, Jet Airways, state-owned Air India and low-cost airline SpiceJet have raised fares following the recent hike in jet fuel prices. Jet Airways has increased its base fares for up to 750 km by Rs 1,000, between 750 km and 1,000 km by Rs 2,250 and beyond 1,000 km by Rs 3,000.

The base fare on Jet's Mumbai-Chennai route will go up from Rs 1,350 to Rs 3,000 while that on the Bangalore-Hyderabad route will go up from Rs 600 to Rs 1,000. The new charges are being added to the base fare and do not include taxes and fuel and congestion surcharges as levied by various airlines. Air India has also raised its base fares by Rs 1,000 for up to 750 km and by Rs 2,250 for distances between 750 km and 1000 km. These hikes in fares are to be effective from June 20.

New Delhi-based SpiceJet has increased the fuel surcharge on its routes. The fuel surcharge for up to 750 km (short-haul) has gone up by Rs 300 and beyond 750 km by Rs 550. Other airlines have already increased their fuel surcharges in the past few weeks, including private airlines Jet Airways, Kingfisher Airlines and Simplify Deccan, which hiked it by Rs 300-550. Spicejet announced last week that it would be reducing its flights from 117 per day to 100 per day to combat soaring jet fuel prices.

I read somewhere that the worst is yet to come.. It seems the leading Indian carriers said more air fare increases are possible soon because airlines have still not been able to sell tickets at a fare that meets their costs. SpiceJet says the increase in basic air fares announced would meet only half the increase in cost per seat so the airline has to look at ways to increase fares, especially if oil prices went up again.

Air ticket prices, inclusive of the basic fare, fuel surcharge and other taxes have increased by around 140 per cent for long-haul routes and more than double for short-haul routes from the beginning of 2007 till now. The most recent increase of around 5 to 20 per cent was announced on Thursday.

Now I am planning to cut down my air travel, and look for other options.. Lalu's Garib Radh might come to my rescue.. let see..

Rgds,
Veer