Rail fare hike: Passengers may ditch Railways, switch to low cost airlines

New Delhi: With the new government increasing the railway fare by a whopping 14.2 per cent, disgruntled passengers are now mulling to take the air route with domestic air fares dropping with new entrants. At a time when the foray of AirAsia India has changed the country's aviation market drastically and the domestic airlines have lucrative discounts on offer, the loyal rail passengers may ditch the grand old Indian Railways and opt for plane journeys.
With the 14.2 per cent increase in rail prices, a 3rd AC ticket on all long distance routes cost a minimum of Rs 2,000 and of course a passenger's valuable 24 to 48 hours. On the other hand, domestic airlines such as SpiceJet are offering discounted tickets for as low as Rs 1,999 to all the metros.

Rail vs air: New tariffs good news for airlines

New Delhi: The steep rail fare rise at a time when Budget carriers are offering discounted tickets every other day, has now made flying cheaper than chugging along for travellers who latch on to airline offers.

While regular airfares remain significantly higher than Rajdhani second AC fares (the benchmark for low-cost carriers or LCCs), travel industry insiders say that the airlines will drop advance purchase fares in the lean-travel months of January-March and July-September.