Data shows fall in airfares to Prayagraj, but for pilgrims, it's still beyond reach

According to the government's estimate, more than 450 million devotees are expected to attend the Maha Kumbh 2025, including around 1.5 million foreign tourists.

Pilgrims looking for a spiritual cleansing by bathing in the waters of Ganga are still struggling as airfares to the holy city of Prayagraj remain around 98-210 percent higher in the first week of February, compared to the same period last year, data from the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA), online travel platforms and airlines show.

The Maha Kumbh Mela, a spiritual festival that sees the largest human gathering, is going on in Prayagraj. It started on 13 January, 2025 and lasts till 26 February 2025.

Data from travel platform Ixigo shows that while the average spot fares for flights from Delhi, Bengaluru and Mumbai to Prayagraj have fallen to Rs 13,000-25,000 for last-minute travel on February 3, 2025, from Rs 17,000-33,000, seen around January 28, 2025, ticket prices are still high, compared to the same period last year.

"Air traffic to Prayagraj, in the last three weeks, has risen nearly five times. We are working with airlines to reduce fares further but it is very unlikely that they will dip beyond a certain point," Prayagraj airport director Mukesh Chandra Upadhyay told Moneycontrol. The airport is managed by the Airports Authority of India (AAI).

Airport at maximum capacity

He added that Prayagraj airport is handling around 25-30 daily flights, which is its maximum capacity.

"During Mahakumbh, the airport witnessed 30,172 passengers and operated 226 flights in just one week, surpassing 5,000 passengers in a single day for the first time. Night flights were also introduced, enabling 24/7 connectivity for the first time in 106 years," the MoCA had said in a statement last week.

According to MoCA, IndiGo, Air India, Air India Express, SpiceJet and Akasa Air have launched flights between Prayagraj and Delhi, Chennai, Guwahati, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Jaipur, and Hyderabad, adding close to 70,000 seats in February 2025. In the last week of January, there were 132 flights, with around 80,000 monthly seats, to Prayagraj from across the country.

Kumbh Mela 2025

Surge in average fares

Despite the flight additions to the holy city, the average fares for flights booked 15 days in advance to Prayagraj, between January 28 and  February 4, 2025, have risen 210 percent on-year to around Rs 19,300 from Bengaluru, around 115 percent on-year to Rs 12,500 from Mumbai, and 90 percent on-year to Rs 8,200 from Delhi, data from travel portal IxiGo assessed by Moneycontrol showed.

Similarly, average ticket prices for flights booked 7 days in advance to Prayagraj between January 28 and February 4, 2025, have risen 200 percent on-year to around Rs 26,700 from Bengaluru, and increased around 150 percent on- year to Rs 29,000 from Mumbai and 190 percent on-year to Rs 21,500 from Delhi.

"Adding flights to Prayagraj can only stabilise airfares to an extent. When you compare the rise in demand to the rise in fares, it's clear that the increase in fares is much lower than the rise in ticket prices," a senior official from Air India told Moneycontrol.

Special programmes to curb travel costs

Special programmes by the state government to provide tickets to pilgrims, like those launched for trains and buses, can curb travel cost, he added.

The cost of chartered flights between Delhi and Prayagraj have risen nearly 250 percent, while chartered flights from Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kanpur, and Lucknow have risen between 200-280 percent, data from JetSetGo showed.

A survey by LocalCircles, published on January 29, also shows that airfares to Prayagraj and Varanasi are reported to have risen 300-600 percent.

Last week, the MoCA and aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) met airline officials to further increase flights to Prayagraj in a bid to keep airfares in check. Airfares in India are deregulated and market-determined, essentially depending on demand-supply dynamics.

The biggest destinations driving flight booking demand to Prayagraj and nearby airports, such as Lucknow and Varanasi, are Mumbai, Bengaluru, New Delhi, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Pune, and Kolkata, Ixigo said.

The Kumbh Mela

The Kumbh  Mela, the largest human gathering in the world, is one of the most-awaited spiritual events for Hindus. According to the government's estimate, more than 450 million devotees are expected to attend Maha Kumbh 2025, including around 1.5 million foreign tourists.

Significant bathing dates such as Makar Sankranti (January 14), Mauni Amavasya (January 29), Basant Panchami (February 3), and Maha Shivratri (February 26) are expected to see peak traffic into the holy city.