JAIPUR: Come September, Amit Nagar is scheduled to spend his vacation at the Pench National Park in Madhya Pradesh. Nagar booked tickets for himself, his wife, and two children to Nagpur via Delhi. On Thursday, he cancelled the return tickets for the Jaipur-Nagpur leg of his journey. Instead, the family will now travel by road to the IGI Airport.
Nagar stated that the decision was taken to save both time and money. The family spent Rs 48,000 for the return tickets between Jaipur and Delhi. However, he has now booked a cab for Rs 6,000 one way to travel between Jaipur and IGI Airport. In all, he will save around Rs 36,000.“We are also saving on time. My flight was scheduled at 8 am from Jaipur, while the Delhi-Nagpur flight is at around 4 pm. We would have spent around five to six hours in transit, but now we can cover Jaipur and IGI Airport in 3 to 3.5 hours. We are going to comfortably start around 10.30 to 11 am from home and reach the IGI Airport in time,” said Nagar. The recently inaugurated spur linkway, connecting Bagrana near Jaipur to the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway, is significantly influencing the air travel patterns between Jaipur and Delhi. Travellers have started preferring to reach the IGI Airport by road instead of taking a flight.Travel industry specialists note that this will have an immense impact on passenger movement at the Jaipur airport, as the airport suffers from limited direct connections to major domestic and international destinations. Additionally, the existing direct flights command higher fares compared to Delhi routes due to fewer daily operations.Sanjay Kaushik, a prominent travel agent from Jaipur, said the average fare for sectors like Jaipur-Kolkata and Jaipur-Mumbai is normally twice that from Delhi. For many destinations, there are no direct flights from Jaipur.“With travel time between Jaipur and IGI Airport reduced to 3.5 hours, why would travellers prefer to take flights from Jaipur airport? Even for the one-hour flight from Jaipur, you need to reach the airport at least an hour before the scheduled take-off time. It means you are spending around 2.5 hours for the trip. Better, you pay less, set out from your home, and reach the IGI Airport within 3.5 hours,” added Kaushik.
