Industry Odisha Bureau, Oct 11: Booking a domestic air ticket months in advance is often saving travellers little. Fewer flights and two dominant carriers are shaping prices. Costlier jet fuel may keep fares elevated into 2027.
On some busy domestic routes, the early bird is missing the worm. Booking a flight in advance once meant noticeably cheaper fares. Now, some fares stay high months before departure. On the Delhi-Mumbai route, distant and next-day fares now match. Thinner capacity and two dominant carriers are reshaping India’s domestic airfares in 2026. Travellers planning ahead are losing a familiar way to save.
Same fare, any date
The prime Delhi-Mumbai route illustrates the shift clearly. Next-day one-way economy tickets cost ₹6,200 on Akasa Air. IndiGo quoted ₹6,500, while Air India’s fare was ₹6,900. Identical fares applied to flights booked for February 2027. Just a few months earlier, such advance tickets cost around ₹3,800. For anyone buying a domestic air ticket early, the saving disappeared here. These are observed fares, not fixed prices across every flight or date.
Fewer flights, fewer rivals
Reduced airline capacity is a key factor, says Manoj Samuel. He is chief executive of Mumbai-based Riya Travel and Tours India. The firm handles large volumes of corporate travel, including for leading technology companies.
“IndiGo has cut capacity and Air India is not scaling up,” Samuel said. Fewer flights mean fewer seats to sell at deep discounts. IndiGo holds about 70% of the domestic market, and Air India group about 25%. Akasa Air and SpiceJet hold much smaller shares. With limited competition, airlines face little pressure to undercut each other, experts said.
Samuel stresses that the shift is confined to India’s home market. “It’s only a domestic market trend,” he said. “You can still get return tickets to Bangkok for ₹26,000.”
Fuel fears cloud forward pricing
Aviation fuel adds another layer of uncertainty. The US-Iran war has pushed jet fuel prices up over 30% year on year. Airlines appear unsure how long the conflict will last. That makes them wary of selling forward tickets cheaply. A low fare locked in today could prove costly if fuel climbs further. Fuel, however, is only one factor in airline pricing decisions. Capacity, demand and competition also shape what passengers pay.
Consolidation lifts revenue per seat
Consolidation over the last seven years has also narrowed passenger choice. Jet Airways and Go First have both collapsed. Vistara and AirAsia India were merged into the Air India group.
IndiGo’s revenue per available seat kilometre, or RASK, has risen sharply. The metric shows revenue earned for every seat-kilometre an airline flies. It stood at 3.7 in summer 2018 and now reaches 5.66. That is a rise of more than 50%. However, RASK is not an average ticket price. Nor does higher revenue automatically mean higher profits.
Higher fares may stretch into 2027
A former airline executive, speaking anonymously, said daily domestic flights have fallen. They numbered around 3,200 earlier and now stand near 2,800–3,000. He linked the fall to costlier fuel and airspace restrictions. Without the war, the winter schedule could have crossed 3,400 daily flights, he said. Even if the conflict eases, fuel costs could hold capacity back. He fears 2027 may also bring higher fares for travellers. That remains an industry view, not a certainty.
