Centre asks airlines to slash airfares for Kumbh Mela

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| Photo Credit: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar

The Centre on Wednesday (January 29, 2025) urged airlines to maintain “reasonable fares” for devotees making their way to Prayagraj for the ongoing Maha Kumbh. IndiGo said it has slashed down ticket prices by 30% to 50% on flights to and from the pilgrim city.

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Minister for Civil Aviation Ram Mohan Naidu held a meeting with airline representatives “to review adequacy of air connectivity to Prayagraj from across the country while maintaining reasonable fares during the once in 144 years Maha Kumbh Mahotsav,” the Ministry posted on X.

Earlier this week, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad claimed that airlines had raised airfares for flights to Prayagraj by 200% to 700% and called this an “unfair and unethical” practice which was inconveniencing devotees.

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“We have reduced airfares on all routes to and from Prayagraj by 30-50%,” a spokesperson of IndiGo said.

Earlier this week, the Ministry said that airlines had also been asked to mount more flights and 132 flights were added to Prayagraj in the month of January, which would be followed by more flights in the months to come including Akasa adding 21 flights from Ahmedabad and Bengaluru as well as SpiceJet adding flight from Delhi, Chennai, Guwahati, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Jaipur and Hyderabad.