Festive seasons have always had an impact on travel as a whole. Be it a surge in people visiting their hometowns or going on vacation or a rise in the price of tickets, Air travel is also facing something similar as the country gears up for the festive season, with Diwali and Christmas coming up. For now, the latest update mentions that the demand for layover flights is increasing. Why? Let us help you with that!
Demand For Layover Flights Is Increasing
According to the Times of India, travellers these days are opting for layover flights instead of direct flights to their destinations. The reason behind this is that the former option is helping them save money on travel.
Prajeeth M Kutty, a Hadapsar resident, often travels between Pune and Cochin on direct flights. But these days, he finds opting for one-stop flights more preferable than direct flights. While talking to TOI, he mentioned that roundtrips with one-stop flights are way cheaper than direct ones during the festive season. He mentioned that he used to find layovers extremely chaotic and boring but now prefers them.
Prajeeth said that the fare for direct flights is on the rise during most of the months these days. His friends advised him to try layover flights, and that has helped him save some money. (As per The Times Of India)
Also Read: How Does Goa Celebrate Diwali?
Additional Time Is Acceptable
Despite the fact that Pune has many direct flights, many people, like Prajeeth, have started adapting to layover flights rather than direct ones. Travel agents also mentioned that people prefer layover flights to direct ones. They are also okay with the additional time that such flights come with.
A round-trip direct flight from Pune to Cochin costs about ₹18,000 after Diwali. The same is true when opting for a one-stop flight, which costs approximately ₹14,500 only.
Pune-based Go Holidays, Makrand Angal, told TOI that many flights exceed the additional time by seven hours. He said that nowadays people do not mind waiting and that he gets a lot of queries about one-stop flights these days. The interest of people in layover flights has surely increased, according to Makrand.
The owner of Shree Vinayak holidays, Santosh Gupta, mentioned that a round trip from Pune to Patna after Diwali costs ₹27,000 for one person. However, if any traveller thinks of going on a direct flight one way and then taking a layover via Hyderabad, which takes an additional seven hours, the cost still comes to around ₹24,000.
Saving Money Is The Goal
Santosh Gupta mentioned that all travellers should save about ₹3,000 to ₹4,000. He said that every traveller is always looking for ways to lower his expenditure on travel and save money. Some flyers take one-stop flights to and from Pune just to save money.
A Pune resident, Aditya Pohlad, told TOI that he had booked an Air India flight from Pune to Goa in mid-December. The layover is 8 hours, and while going back, the layover is 10 hours long in Mumbai.
The total fare he had to pay for this trip was ₹13,000 because of layovers. He mentioned that if he had taken direct flights, the cost would have been ₹22,000, excluding taxes. Aditya knows that Mumbai is a busy airport and that he likes gaming; killing time will be easy.
What are your views?
Cover Image Courtesy: Canva
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