I-Day weekend flight fares to Goa touch 23k, Kochi 25k
With Aug 15 falling on a Friday, the extended weekend holidayers seem to have booked their short trips as airfares to leisure and religious destinations have peaked for the coming weekend.
The most noticeable change is on the Mumbai-Goa route. Airfares on the most popular non-metro destination out of Mumbai had cooled in the recent past with two airports in Goa offering travel options. But this year, if you want to fly out on Friday morning or noon to Goa and return by a noon or evening flight, you will have to shell out Rs 23,000.
The cheapest fare on the route is Rs 15,000, but that would give you red-eye flights that depart or land around midnight.
Last year, the cheapest 24-hour advance purchase fare to travel from Mumbai to Goa started at Rs 15,000, for convenient timings.
In 2024, Aug 15 fell on a Thursday, but with Rakshabandan falling on Aug 19, in 2024, the mid-Aug long weekend stretched to five days. This year, the Aug 15 long weekend is only 3 days long.
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Leisure travel and religious tourism have peaked with fares to Kochi, Gaya, Ayodhya, Agra up. For instance, while the Mumbai-Kochi return fare is priced at Rs 12,000 for the Aug 22 weekend, it is Rs 25,000 for the Aug 15 weekend.
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'Visiting friends and relatives' or VFR destinations don't go up in demand mid-Aug. A return ticket to fly non-stop from Mumbai to Kolkata starting at Rs 14,000 thus is a cheap option and so is a Rs 13,000 return for a Mumbai-Delhi flight.
Rajesh Magow of MakeMyTrip said: "Independence Day has emerged as a key travel occasion over the years. This year too, the search and booking trends point to strong intent to travel over the Independence Day weekend. With Independence Day on a Friday, travel demand appears to be peaking two days earlier, on Wednesday, Aug 13, giving early travellers a 5-day window." Among the trending domestic cities are Goa, Udaipur, Jaipur, Puri, Lonavala, Varanasi, Coorg, Mahabaleshwar, Ooty, and Puducherry, he added.
The first half of Aug is shaping up to be a peak travel window, with travellers opting for quick escapes. Rikant Pittie of EaseMyTrip said destinations such as Udaipur, Goa, Mysuru, Kerala and Hyderabad are trending.
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