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Airlines double ticket prices to cash in on Odisha train accident, despite DGCA warning

DailyBiteJune 5, 2023 | 09:54 IST

On Friday evening (June 2) a devastating multiple-train collision in Odisha killed 275 people and injured over a thousand others. The accident cut off all train operations in the area and to various cities over the weekend. 

  • On June 3, several people were stranded at a Bengaluru railway station after about 33 trains were cancelled owing to the accident. 
  • On the other hand, as soon as the news of the accident broke, flight fares to cities such as Bengaluru, Bhubaneshwar, Kolkata, Vizag, Hyderabad, and Chennai more than doubled.
  • The rise in prices came even as the Ministry of Civil Aviation asked Airlines to keep the prices from soaring given the humanitarian crisis. 

  • The Ministry even asked Airlines not to levy penalty charges on cancellation or change of plans. 

However, flyers still reported a significant increase in fares on several flight routes. 

Some even said that Bhubaneshwar to Chennai flight which usually costs around Rs 4,000 is costing a whopping Rs 60k+. 

On the Bhubaneswar to Kolkata route, flight fares were around Rs 12,000 on June 4 (Sunday), while a Twitter user said that regular prices are around Rs 3,500 to Rs 6,000. 

Twitter users accused Airlines of using a disaster to cash in on profits and asked the Aviation Ministry to interfere. 

Flights between Bhubaneshwar to Kolkata were also much higher than flights from Bengaluru to Kolkata, which is usually not the case. 

Times of India reported that flight prices for Kolkata-Hyderabad, which usually start from around Rs 6,000, were costing Rs 18,000 on Sunday. 

We checked the current prices of flights on some of these routes and found that prices have since normalised. 

On the other hand, the restoration process in the Balasore area has allowed for train operations to resume. 

Three trains were involved in the ghastly accident - the Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express, the Coromandel Express, and a goods train. The train accident is the third biggest in India's history and there are several unanswered questions on how and why it happened. 

[ALSO READ: What is skiplagging, the hot new hack to save on airfare, and why do airlines hate it?]

Last updated: June 05, 2023 | 09:54
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