Jet, set, weddings: Why Indian airlines are on a high this wedding season
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. It’s peak wedding season in India and airlines and operators of charter jets are rejoicing with the honeymooners. India’s peak wedding season spans from November to March, aligning with a higher number of dates deemed auspicious for matrimonial alliances.
For airlines operating in India, that’s expected to translate to more families, wedding guests and newly wedded couples taking to the skies. On 17 November, a Sunday, India’s daily air passenger traffic climbed to a record 505,412, per data from India’s ministry of civil aviation, although this is also attributed to the ongoing festive season. The previous record of about 499,000 passengers was reached a couple of days earlier, on 15 November.
“Tier 2 cities are powering the wedding season this year," said Aloke Bajpai, group chief executive, ixigo, a digital travel and hotels booking platform run by Le Travenues Technology Ltd. “Travel (bookings) to tier 2 and 3 cities for November and December have seen a significant rise, with Varanasi bookings up by an impressive 265% and Gorakhpur by 109%. Amritsar, Chandigarh and Patna have also recorded an increase of over 70% in flight bookings." According to ixigo, more people are flying to small towns like Varanasi owing to a combination of factors: people travelling to their hometowns for weddings and others for religious tourism.
Flight bookings to major metro hubs such as Delhi and Mumbai as well as leisure destinations such as Srinagar, Jaipur, and Goa are also seeing a strong 70-80% year-on-year increase for November-December, Bajpai said. International destinations are also in demand, as in any wedding season. “Overseas honeymoon bookings to destinations in Southeast Asia and the
. Read more on livemint.com
