Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Sunday sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s immediate personal intervention to reduce exorbitant airfares in the post-COVID period in both domestic and international sectors.
In a letter to PM Modi, the Kerala Chief Minister said that airfares in both the international and domestic sectors have become exorbitantly high recently, which is pulling the travel industry down and putting Non-Residents to extreme hardship.
He further said that the ticket fare hike will affect the Non-Residents along with people and tourism sector of Kerala.
“Let me bring to your kind attention a very important issue that is pulling the travel industry down and putting non-residents to extreme hardship. Airfares in both the International and Domestic sectors have become exorbitantly high recently. They are very high when compared to the fares that had been prevailing in pre-COVID times,” he said.
Vijayan said that the non-residents, who are already seriously affected by the impact of the pandemic are again suffering due to the unreasonably high airfares.
He also pointed out that this is also affecting Kerala’s tourism sector, which is in crisis due to the COVID-19 induced lockdown.
“The tourism sector in Kerala is on the threshold of a turnaround and the exorbitant airfares are a serious dampener to the revival of this sector. I request your immediate personal intervention in this matter so as to alleviate the difficulties of non-residents and to help the tourism sector, the revival of which is vital for our economy,” Vijayan added.
Vijayan, in his letter, also a comparative statement of air fares of pre-Covid fares and the present fares which show a massive hike in key international and domestic sectors for PM Modi’s perusal.
From Cochin to Delhi, the fares jumped from Rs 4,000 to Rs 14,000, from Cochin to Mumbai the fare was Rs 3,000 and the current fare is Rs 10,000, it went up from Rs 2,000 to Rs 7,000 from Cochin to Bangalore and from Cochin to Chennai, it jumped from Rs 7,000 to Rs 2,500.
Likewise, in the international sector, the fare from Cochin to Dubai was Rs 12,000 and now it jumped to Rs 20,000. From Cochin to London, it doubled was Rs 50,000 and it increased to Rs 75,000 and from Cohin to Toronto, the fares increased from 65,000 to Rs 1,70,000.