Sajad Ismail Sofi, a travel agent, at his office in Srinagar, Indian-administered Kashmir [Aatif Ammad\/Al Jazeera]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u2018Hollow catchphrase\u2019<\/h2>\n In October 2016, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched what his government has called the UDAN scheme \u2013 \u201cUdan\u201d means \u201cflight\u201d in Hindi, but the acronym stands for Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik (Let the Common Citizen Fly). The stated aim of the scheme was to dramatically expand India\u2019s aviation infrastructure, and open up dozens of new routes to make air travel accessible to lower-income Indians and people in smaller towns and cities.<\/p>\n
While flagging off the first flight under the scheme in April 2017, Modi said, \u201cI want to see people who wear hawai chappals [flip-flops] flying in a hawai jahaaz [aeroplane].\u201d<\/p>\n
His comments effectively became a slogan for the campaign, touted as the government\u2019s bid to make flying affordable and accessible for millions of people from small-town India, many of whom cannot even afford shoes.<\/p>\n
But that slogan now carries a tinge of irony, Singh said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith fares escalating consistently over the past few years, this inspiring slogan now risks becoming a hollow catchphrase rather than a lived reality.\u201d<\/p>\n
Under the Modi government, India has indeed witnessed a rapid expansion in the number of cities and towns connected by air, with airports more than doubling from 74 in 2014, when Modi came to power, to 157 in 2024.<\/p>\n
But the numbers mask a deeper crisis that afflicts Indian aviation, experts say. Because the number of flights and routes has gone up, the total volume of travellers in India has remained high, even if soaring prices mean that many individual passengers are reducing air travel.<\/p>\n
The country is the world\u2019s third-largest domestic aviation market, and witnessed a 15 percent increase in air passengers, year-on-year, in the 2024 financial year, according to government figures.<\/p>\n
Still, signs of turbulence are visible, even in the data. Domestic air traffic dipped to 12.6 million passengers in July 2025, compared with 13.1 million in June 2025. The numbers recovered in August to 13.2 million, but then dipped again in September (12.6 million), before rising in October to 14.3 million passengers.<\/p>\n
Rohit Kumar, an aviation economist and a faculty member at Rajiv Gandhi National Aviation University, said that while passenger numbers have not fallen, \u201cthe rise in fares has quietly pushed the lower and lower-middle classes out of the skies\u201d. New airports, more routes, and upper-middle-class travellers, who value time over cost, are continuing to keep total passenger numbers up.<\/p>\n
Kumar added that the remote working culture that many technology and service-driven industries in India have continued to embrace since the pandemic has allowed employees to travel more frequently than before. This has boosted occasional air travel among higher-income professionals, he said.<\/p>\n
However, despite year-on-year growth, the sector remains deeply unequal. India\u2019s aviation sector, Kumar cautioned, is being carried by a small, affluent section, while the vast majority \u2013 emerging flyers that the UDAN scheme was meant to serve \u2013 are increasingly being left behind.<\/p>\n
Singh of the FAII was even more blunt.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe very people the [Modi] slogan referred to, those who wear chappals, are now being priced out of the skies,\u201d she said.<\/p>\nAn aircraft of India\u2019s SpiceJet airlines takes off in Mumbai, India, Sunday, August 7, 2022 [Rafiq Maqbool\/AP]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u2018Monopolistic trends\u2019<\/h2>\n More routes are not the only factor allowing airlines to keep raising fares, even if they are pricing out many passengers. They are also helped by shrinking competition.<\/p>\n
In recent years, several major airlines have shut down, while others have merged after acquisitions.<\/p>\n
Go First, which once held more than 10 percent of India\u2019s domestic and international market, with 52 aircraft, ceased operations in May 2023 after filing for bankruptcy. Jet Airways, with a 21 percent market share and 124 aircraft at its 2016 peak, halted operations in 2019.<\/p>\n
SpiceJet teetered on the edge of insolvency, especially between 2022 and 2024, due to mounting debt, legal issues, and grounded aircraft. In July 2022, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), India\u2019s aviation regulator, cut SpiceJet operations by 50 percent. The DGCA cited \u201cpoor internal safety oversight and inadequate maintenance actions\u201d. SpiceJet also faced significant delays, with a reported on-time performance (OTP) of 54.8 percent in January 2025, making it the least punctual airline among major carriers at the time.<\/p>\n
Defaults on lease payments also led to aircraft repossessions, shrinking SpiceJet\u2019s fleet from 118 in 2019 to just 28 operational planes by January 2025.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe back-to-back shutdown of airlines in India severely impacted air travel, paving the way for monopolistic trends,\u201d said Singh. With fewer players in the skies, dominant airlines can dictate prices and raise them at their discretion, she added.<\/p>\n
In another major shake-up, Air India, India\u2019s only public sector airline, was officially privatised in January 2022, when the Tata Group took over full ownership.<\/p>\n
Following this, Vistara, an airline already jointly owned by Tata and Singapore Airlines, was merged with Air India in November 2024. The merger raised concerns and faced strong opposition from critics, including trade unions and opposition parties, who feared that the consolidation of Air India, Vistara, and AirAsia India \u2013 another Tata Group subsidiary also merged with the other two \u2013 would lead to an aviation oligopoly, reducing competition and consumer choice in the Indian market.<\/p>\n
Zuhaib Rashid, an economics and research associate at the Isaac Centre for Public Policy, New Delhi, said the merger handed over control of India\u2019s skies to just two private players, posing a serious threat to competition.<\/p>\n
The only other major aviation player in India today is Indigo, which has 61 percent market share. Together, IndiGo and Air India now control 91 percent of India\u2019s airline market.<\/p>\n
Rashid argued that, had the government retained a stake in Air India, it could have ensured fare regulation. \u201cFully privatising airlines has reduced government control over pricing, and has allowed private players to dominate in a country where air travel remains a luxury,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Their dominance of the market also allows Air India and Indigo to jack up prices dramatically\u00a0 during peak travel seasons or emergencies, tour operators and experts say, citing two recent examples.<\/p>\n
Sajad Ismail Sofi, a Srinagar-based air travel agent, pointed to the aftermath of the deadly April attack on tourists in Pahalgam, a popular resort town in Indian-administered Kashmir, in which 26 civilians were killed. As tourists in other parts of Kashmir scrambled to leave the region, one-way ticket prices from Srinagar to other parts of India skyrocketed from 5,000 rupees ($56) to nearly 12,000 rupees ($135).<\/p>\n
After airlines faced major criticism and accusations of profiteering from a national crisis, prices came down.<\/p>\n
Earlier in the year, Singh from the FAII recalled, one-way airfares from India\u2019s financial capital, Mumbai, to the temple town of Prayagraj soared to 50,000 rupees ($564) \u2013 more expensive than flights to Paris \u2013 during the Mahakumbh Mela, one of Hinduism\u2019s most sacred events in which devotees take dips in the Ganga river. The government eventually stepped in to pressure airlines to curb prices. However, Singh said that most pilgrims had already bought their tickets by then.<\/p>\n
Al Jazeera has sought responses from Indigo and Air India to the criticism and allegations of using their market dominance to charge exorbitant rates. Neither airline has responded.<\/p>\nAn Air India aircraft stands at the Indira Gandhi airport in New Delhi, India on May 11, 2012 [Mustafa Quraishi\/ AP Photo]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nHigher taxes adding to the burden<\/h2>\n Experts point out that airlines alone are not responsible for the rising fares. India\u2019s high aviation taxes are a key factor too.<\/p>\n
The country imposes the highest taxes on aviation turbine fuel (ATF) in Asia, which account for 45 percent of air ticket prices. By mid-2024, jet fuel prices in cities like Delhi and Mumbai were nearly 60 percent higher than in global hubs like Dubai, Singapore, and Kuala Lumpur, largely due to value-added taxes (VAT), central excise duties and additional cesses.<\/p>\n
Passengers are also charged, as part of their tickets, a user development fee, ranging from 150 rupees ($1.7) to 400 rupees ($4.5) depending on the airport; a passenger service fee of about 150 rupees ($1.7); an aviation security fee of 200 rupees ($2.3) per passenger; a terminal fee of 100 rupees ($1.2); and a regional connectivity charge between 50 rupees ($0.6) and 100 rupees ($1.2) per passenger. Each of these amounts is small, but together, they add up. And they do not go to the airline, but to the airport or the government.<\/p>\n
In June, the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which represents more than 350 airlines globally, called for greater clarity in India\u2019s taxation system, arguing that it was too complex.<\/p>\n
Amjad Ali, a travel operator from New Delhi, said he had been in the air ticketing business since 2005, and had never witnessed a sharp rise in airfares until 2020. \u201cFares used to increase gradually, but since 2020, they have shot up rapidly,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Ali usually books tickets on routes like Delhi\u2013Mumbai, Delhi\u2013Patna, and Delhi\u2013Purnea. Patna and Purnea are cities in the eastern Indian state of Bihar.<\/p>\n
He said that new airports, such as Purnea, have brought in more passengers due to the introduction of new routes. Before the pandemic, a Mumbai\u2013Delhi ticket, booked well in advance, used to cost about 3,800 rupees ($43), but now, it is hard to find one below 6,000 rupees ($68) for the same journey.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, airlines have also started cutting discounts they used to offer to some sections of flyers. Previously, Air India offered a 50 percent concession on the base fare for domestic student travel, but after privatisation, this was reduced to only 10 percent.<\/p>\n
The result, Ali said, is a noticeable decline in student travellers. \u201cWe rarely see students flying these days,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, Singh from the FAII said, the industry was shooting itself in the foot by making flying unaffordable for millions of Indians.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we want air travel to become truly accessible to a larger section of the population, particularly those with limited financial means, the government and aviation stakeholders must work towards reducing these taxes and surcharges,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Until then, a plane ride will remain a flight of fancy for most of India\u2019s 1.4 billion people.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Salman Shahid travels frequently between Srinagar, the biggest city in Indian-administered Kashmir, and New Delhi. He runs Rise, a private coaching centre for students aspiring to join the Indian Institutes of Technology \u2013 the country\u2019s premier engineering schools \u2013 in Srinagar, but his family is based in New Delhi. Flying helps him save time. But […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4008,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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