For better flight deals, go for last-minute bookings

Those who book tickets early might not always get to fly cheaper. Airlines seem to be reducing fares closer to the travel date, an analysis of tickets on offer for travel on six key sectors showed that fares quoted on October 17 for travel were more costly when booked 30 days in advance than 10 days.

In recent times, these select trunk routes have seen capacity addition. "With the added capacity on the top metro routes, and lower load factors in the first half of October compared to last year, airlines have reduced fares closer in to get more people to fly," chief revenue officer at online travel portal Cleartrip, Amit Taneja said.

Moreover, the lower fares benefit customers. Airlines have witnessed higher overall revenue as the lower fuel prices enable them to operate profitably even at low fares, according to Taneja.

From this year, airlines have added about 18% seats in sync with over 20% growth in passengers that the domestic market registered between January and August. Overall, airlines offer about 300,000 seats on domestic sectors.

About 63 flights operate from Delhi to Mumbai and vice versa. Other city pairs like Bengaluru-Mumbai and Mumbai-Hyderabad have 32 and 21 daily direct flights, respectively, and many more flights with stopovers. Pune and Chennai and Kolkata-Bengaluru have seven and 12 flights, respectively.

Industry experts are of the view that airlines are reducing fares closer to the departure due to lower bookings. "The reason we are not seeing a lot of advance bookings is because people are spending less. Less expenditure by people is due to the economic situation, which is not in the best of health," said Ajay Prakash, former president of Travel Agents Federation of India and a travel agent.

Prakash is of the view, the demand for advance bookings is still not high despite airlines offering lower fares on the back of cheaper fuel. The airlines are also offering cheaper last-minute fares, as much as 47% lower than that last year over the recent long weekends.

When it comes to airfares, dynamic pricing seems to be an evolving concept. What's required is transparency, so that consumers know when to avail the best rates. A rule of thumb used to be to book six weeks ahead and avoid weekend schedules.

(Image: Indiatimes)