AAP’s Raghav Chadha raises considerations over skyrocketing airfares to Prayagraj throughout Mahakumbh: ‘Disheartening to see…’

AAP chief Raghav Chadha on Tuesday accused airways of making the most of Mahakumbh devotees by charging exorbitant flight fares to Prayagraj.

Usually, flights to Prayagraj price between Rs5,000 to Rs8,000, however with the Mahakumbh festivities underway, airways are charging Rs50,000 to Rs60,000. In a video message on X, Raghav accused airways of profiteering by charging exorbitant fares.

He urged the Centre to intervene and cap flight costs to make sure truthful therapy for devotees. He emphasised that the Mahakumbh is a sacred occasion, and it is unacceptable for airways to profiteer from devotees’ non secular journeys.

“Mahakumbh is the most important non secular and religion occasion for Sanatan Dharma. After 144 years, this grand Mahakumbh is being celebrated in Prayagraj, attracting hundreds of thousands of devotees from around the globe who want to take a holy dip and interact in ‘sadhana’ and ‘tapasya.’ Nevertheless, it’s disheartening to see some airways exploiting this event by considerably mountain climbing flight fares. Whereas the same old flight ticket to Prayagraj prices round Rs5,000 to Rs8,000, devotees are actually going through expenses of Rs50,000 to Rs60,000. This profiteering has left many devotees disheartened. Such actions by airways are unacceptable, and I urge the federal government to intervene and cap flight costs to make sure truthful therapy for devotees,” he said.

This is not the primary time Chadha has raised considerations about unfair practices. Beforehand, he highlighted the problem of overpriced meals at airport canteens, which led to the introduction of inexpensive choices for passengers.

“Once we introduced up the problem of overpriced meals at airports in Parliament, the federal government took motion, resulting in the introduction of inexpensive canteen choices for passengers. Equally, I’m hopeful that our present request will attain the authorities, guaranteeing that devotees travelling to the Mahakumbh are supplied with moderately priced flight tickets,” he added.

In the meantime, the Directorate Normal of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has directed airways to extend capability and rationalise fares for flights to Prayagraj through the ongoing Mahakumbh on Monday.

To handle the problem, the DGCA met with airways on January 23, urging them so as to add extra flights and rationalise fares. Because of this, 81 further flights have been accepted for January, bringing the full variety of flights to Prayagraj to 132 from throughout India.

“In view of possible surge in demand, DGCA met airways on January 23 and urged them to extend additional capability by including flights and rationalising fares,” DGCA mentioned.

On January 24, SpiceJet introduced the addition of particular flights to Prayagraj for the Maha Kumbh by introducing new direct flights from Guwahati, Chennai, and Hyderabad.

On January 25, Akasa Air, ramped up its connectivity to Prayagraj with particular flights from Pune, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Bengaluru by way of Delhi, along with its day by day direct companies from Mumbai