Indigo Assam IndiGo
Representative photo.

Guwahati: Budget carrier IndiGo has drawn ire from travellers following a steep hike in airfare on the Guwahati-Silchar route in Assam.

In the last couple of days, airfare to Silchar from Guwahati has crossed Rs 15, 000, which has led to many people travelling by bus and train. 

An IndiGo flight ticket from Guwahati to Silchar on February 20 was quoted at Rs 16, 369.

Many flyers have complained about the exorbitant price of the air ticket on the route and added that it had affected them severely.

Reacting about the skyrocketing airfare to Silchar from Guwahati, a passenger, who did not wish to be named said, “On Monday I had to travel to Silchar from Guwahati in an IndiGo flight paying over Rs 12,000.”

 “The aerial distance to Silchar from Guwahati airport is 193 kilometres and it takes just 50 minutes to fly. But we have to pay such a high fare on such a short route. There should be a limit on the maximum fare an airline can charge,” he said.

“The huge increase in prices by the airline is not acceptable. DGCA should take steps to this kind of predatory pricing,” said another traveller.

IndiGo officials are not available for comments despite repeated attempts.

Interestingly, the Assam government and the ministry of DONER have not taken up the issue with the airline.

They neither raise the issue of high airfare with the DGCA nor with the airline, said an official.

Officials said the lack of a sufficient number of flights on the route is the main reason behind the spiralling of fares. 

After SpiceJet suspended its operation last year, currently only two airlines are operating flights on the route.

While IndiGo is operating one direct flight from Guwahati to Silchar, Air India is operating one weekly flight via Kolkata and New Delhi.

The lack of a sufficient number of flights on the Guwahati-Silchar route is a glaring instance of failure of the UDAN scheme launched in 2017 by the BJP government.

The regional connectivity scheme was launched to put smaller cities on India’s air map by way of fiscal incentives, infrastructure support, procedural simplifications and monetary subsidies. 

The Hyderabad-based Air Deccan won exclusive rights to connect it to Aizawl, Agartala, Silchar, Dimapur and Imphal.

But Airport Authority of India records reveal that the carrier only operated flights to Agartala and Dimapur for a total of 10 days from May 1 to May 10 in 2018.