Roll back airfare hike to Gulf region: Kerala CM to Minister

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan Thursday asked Union Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu to roll back the steep hike in air fares from the state to West Asia.

The fares should be brought back to the level it prevailed in February this year, Vijayan said in a letter to Prabhu.

During April-May, schools in Kerala have summer vacation and a lot of non-resident Keralites come to the state and return to the Gulf region.

Therefore, there is an additional demand for flight tickets and the airlines were cashing in on this demand despite the director general of civil aviation advising them not to raise fares, he said.

Not paying heed to this, the airlines have hiked the one- way fares from Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode airports to various destinations in the Gulf sector by 200 to 400 per cent, he said

Besides, there was no availability of seats in the economy class, he said.

Grounding of a few Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft following safety precautions should not be the reason for raising the air fares, he further said.

Most of the non-resident Keralites earn meagre salary and the ‘unjustified’ steep hike in air fares would affect them badly, he added.