Deepavali season hikes airfares by 3 times; passengers shocked

CHENNAI: The passenger footfall at city airport increased ahead of Deepavali and the ticket price also gone up due to the last-minute rush.

With only a couple of days left for the Deepavali festival, the public have started travelling to their native place to spend festival day with their families and loved ones.

Passengers who could not get train tickets were seen taking flight journeys to escape from the on-road traffic.

Usually, the footfall at Chennai airport is about 35,000-40,000 a day but now it has crossed 50,000. Officials believe that it would peak on Sunday.

With limited options to reach hometown for Deepavali, passengers are forced to spend a lot more on air tickets. However, officials said that passengers should have pre-booked their tickets a few weeks ago.Usually, the ticket price would go up during the festival days considering the demand, airport sources said.