Corporates And Wedding Hosts Major Clients

MUMBAI: An Embraer E175LR private jet was rushed to Guwahati on Saturday to bring back 36 children of top corporate executives after they were stranded in Kaziranga when IndiGo cancelled its flights. The scramble has become emblematic of the sudden rush for charter aircraft in India as disruptions at the country’s largest airline ripple through the peak travel and wedding season.“Typical movements included Delhi-Udaipur, Jaipur, Jodhpur, all popular wedding destinations, apart from Hyderabad and Chennai,” said Gautam Sahni of Noida-based Subha Aviation, which specialises in airline charters. He described the spike as “unprecedented”, driven entirely by destination wedding groups and smaller groups of 50-180 whose scheduled flights were cancelled at short notice: “Look for 50-seater airline jets and you will find that nothing is available in the market today because, ultimately, you have to take aircraft away from a scheduled carrier’s flow.”“Every airline does charters, but none can support this kind of sudden demand, especially at a time their scheduled flights are flying packed because of IndiGo disruptions,” he said.In one instance, he added, an eight-seater aircraft had to be flown empty from Delhi to Kolkata to pick up a wedding party after their airline connection broke down.Mandar Bharde, of Mumbai-based MAB Aviation, said past four days had brought a flood of enquiries, led largely by destination weddings and year-end travel. “Every day we are getting requests from destination wedding hosts in Jaipur and Udaipur. Dec is peak vacation season and all charter flights are full,” he said. Bharde added that Mumbai has about 8-10 charter aircraft while Delhi has about 20, but most operators were already busy before the airline disruptions worsened the crunch.Rahul Muchhal, of Accretion Aviation, said: “We’ve been getting 200-250 calls daily over the past three days, not much from Mumbai, and mostly for Delhi-Goa, Delhi-Udaipur and Mumbai-Delhi. But today, nothing is available. The actual bookings were mainly from corporate houses who needed to shift people urgently.”So, how much do these charters cost? A 30-seater Delhi-Udaipur charter was quoted at about Rs 17.6 lakh plus taxes, touching Rs 20 lakh all-inclusive; the operator did not divulge the aircraft type. Smaller aircraft such as the 7-seater King Air B200 on the Delhi-Vadodara sector cost Rs 11 lakh for a round trip. Aircraft type also dictates the price.A 13-seater Embraer Legacy aircraft cost Rs 20 lakh to charter, including 18% GST, and a 7-seater Bombardier Learjet went for Rs 18-19 lakh.