Premium trains, faster highways dampen demand for short-haul air travel

While business travellers still opt for air travel, the transition is more visible in the leisure segment on account of rising airfare, and improved rail and road transportation infrastructure, according to executives at travel portals.

“Surface transportation emerged on the radar given the improved infrastructure coupled with supply constraints resulting in increased airfares. Compared with last year, return fare between Pune and Mumbai witnessed an increase of 17%, Jaipur-Delhi by 7% and Bengaluru-Chennai up by 4%," Daniel D’Souza, president and country head, holidays, SOTC Travel, said.

“With the introduction of Vande Bharat trains, we are also seeing customers displaying increased interest in train journeys," D’Souza added.

Vande Bharat was launched in 2019, as a premium semi-high-speed train service. Currently, nearly 25 Vande Bharat trains operate across the country, with heavy demand on routes such as Mumbai-Gandhinagar and Chennai-Mysuru. Improved road infrastructure has played a role as well. For instance, travel time on the Delhi-Jaipur route is now down to 3.5 hours from 5-6 hours earlier, following the recent opening of the 246-km stretch on the Delhi-Dausa-Lalsot section of the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway. Similarly, travellers can cover the Delhi-Chandigarh route in 3-3.5 hours, down from around five hours.

For Delhi-Jaipur, the reduction in the number of direct flights coincided with the opening of the highway stretch.

While the two cities were connected with 10 one-way flights in early 2023, currently, there are just five flights, including two from AirAsia India and three from IndiGo.

While IndiGo reduced its daily flights on the route from five to three, SpiceJet and Alliance Air have discontinued their flights on this route.

“Compared with 2019, airfares on short routes such as Delhi-Jaipur, Pune-Mumbai, and Chennai-Bengaluru have witnessed a significant uptick of 14-40%, with peaks coinciding with events, bank holidays and festive holidays," Rajeev Kale, president and country head, holidays, meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE), Visa at Thomas Cook (India) Ltd, said.

“Our data indicates that Indians being quintessential value-seekers, are open to shift to road or rail transport when faced with high air tariffs. This is predominantly seen in the leisure segment, while our corporate and MICE segments continue to see strong preference for air travel," Kale said. In fact, the travel platform also saw 30-40% rise in “drivecations" this year over 2022 for weekends and extended weekends from Delhi to neighbouring locations such as Jaipur and Chandigarh.