Travelling abroad from smaller cities might save you big bucks

If flying abroad has been a dream for you, and air-ticket prices from your metro city have been discouraging you from fulfilling it, try looking for international flights from smaller city airports, which could cost you much lesser.

For example, a ticket to Singapore from Sanganer airport in Jaipur would cost you about half of a similar ticket from Delhi's T3.

As per data compiled by online travel portal Ixigo, budget airlines are offering cheaper fares from tier-2 cities like Lucknow, Jaipur and Trichy, to Singapore, Hong Kong and other nearby international destinations.

The reason behind this fall is the entry of budget carriers on the short-haul international routes as well as comparatively lower operational fees at these smaller airports.

This has led to more passengers travelling abroad from these tier-2 towns, with international traffic from Jaipur and Trichy registering around double digit growth.

"Low cost carriers such as Scoot, Tiger, Air Arabia, FlyDubai etc. have launched their services from various tier 2 cities over the past 12 to 18 months and have gained significant market share through lower fares," Sharat Dhall, chief operating officer at Yatra.com told ET.

"They have dropped fares from certain tier 2 cities to South East Asia and the Middle East, and this has resulted in the growth of direct traffic from these towns."