Airlines operating from Kashmir charging unfair rates: KCCI

Srinagar: Kashmir Chamber of Commerce & Industry has expressed dismay over the “unfair rates” of air fare applied by different airlines operating from Kashmir.
In a statement the President of KCCI Sheikh Ashiq Ahmad said the Chamber has been continuously calling attention of the State and Central Government to the unfair rate of air fare applied by different Airlines operating on Kashmir air routes.
He said the airfares for Delhi –Srinagar and Srinagar – Delhi route have been exorbitantly ranging between Rs 9,000 to over Rs 20,000 recently. “It is causing a great worry not only to the students and desperate patients who have to travel outside the valley, but also to the tourist trade stakeholders”, he added.
The tourism trade was expecting a huge inflow of winter tourism, as the affiliated Tour and Travel Trade Bodies of the KCC&I have fanned out in the country putting their hard efforts to promote winter tourism; Besides the efforts are made by the department of State Tourism for the growth of tourist business in the State.
He said,“Unfortunately huge airfares have been playing the counter as the tourists intending to enjoy winter in Srinagar are not ready to bear the high airfare and are therefore prevented from doing so. The inclement weather and resultant bad road connectivity further aggravate the situation”.
He said this may hit the Tourism business in particular and the economy of the State in general hard.
Pertinently, the airfares on international routes from Delhi are paradoxically far lower than those ruling the Delhi- Jammu- Srinagar air routes. In fact airfares for Delhi to other more distant domestic routes are much lower, Ashiq claimed.
“We also request authorities to increase the number of flights to this route so that they can adjust more passengers with capping airfare”, he added.
The Kashmir Chamber of Commerce & Industry would therefore again draw the attention of the authorities concerned to look into the procedure and criteria adopted by the airlines in fixing the airfares by different airlines for Kashmir routes beside alleviating the hardship faced by local passengers viz students and patients the tourists are encouraged to visit Kashmir in larger numbers, the statement added.
UNI