It’s summer, but travel plans are cancelled. As the war in West Asia continues, Air Turbine Fuel (ATF) costs have risen, leading many to cancel plans to travel abroad, while travel agencies report having little to no clients.
Buddy trip cancelled
Hemanth Akshar, a resident from Hyderabad, was planning to go for a vacation with his family this summer, but those plans have now been cancelled due to air fares increasing. “My cousins and I were planning a trip to the middle east this year. By mid to late April, all had confirmed their availabilities for May, but when we looked up the costs of the flights, there were ranging upwards of Rs 40,000 per person for one -way tickets.”
“Though we are comfortable enough monetarily to spend, we didn’t want to. And the war conditions have also become a point of contention for us, as we never know what can happen. For now, our plans have been indefinitely postponed as it is difficult to gauge the ticket prices,” he added.
As it becomes too expensive to travel abroad, Indians are thinking of travelling in India itself. Pic/iStock
Stuck in limbo
Durga Gadepalli, another resident of Hyderabad, had come to India for a visit from Kuwait back in December of 2025. Gadepalli though, is one of those affected by Kuwait shutting down its airport only to restart domestic flights mid March, while international flights will begin on June 1.
This instability led Gadepalli to not book her ticket. She said, “I had to stay in India till March for a wedding, and by that time, the Kuwait airport was already closed. Hence, I decided it would be a better option to wait for a few more weeks before flying out. Right now, if I have to fly to Kuwait this week, I would need to fly to a different airport in nearby cities like the King Fahd airport in Saudi Arabia, and then go by road to Kuwait. But, those tickets are very costly.”
“The tickets currently are anything between Rs 80,000 to Rs 1 lakh so you can imagine what the prices will be by next week,” says Gadepalli, but it doesn’t look like she has much of an option.
Travel agents speak
Khyati Mehta, a travel agent in Mumbai and Founding Director of the agency Dream2Holiday, explained to Sunday mid-day how they might be losing around 100 travel clients this year due to the uncertainty that has now come into the international travel market.
Mehta said, “People have cancelled travelling plans mainly because of increasing costs, but the other reason has been the absolute fear around travelling during war. Travel aspirants are people who are worried about getting stuck in another country which is valid. Two main changes which I have noticed in the customers now are that: One, they are thinking about cancelling their plans even before they travel, and the second being that people’s long-pending domestic travel plans have now resurfaced.”
Travelling agencies, though, Mehta said, make money off international travel clients. “As far as international travel is concerned, we charge money for the personal touch. A hole-in-the-wall restaurant that has great food, a lesser-known area that will knock the client’s socks off or just a good hotel that saves them from the fatigue of researching a good one. But with domestic plans, people know almost everything from the internet.” In fact, some of the brochures and itineraries shared by Mehta and her company often become a guide for many to plan-it-yourself. “People come to us, take our offer on an itinerary, and then use that as a comparison point with other agencies.
Some even see the names of the hotels and try booking the same itinerary themselves. So far, we have also received requests to just arrange a car in Indian cities, but that doesn’t earn much for us,” Mehta added.
Hemant Akshar
Airlines struggling
The Federation of Indian Airlines wrote to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation and the Ministry of Civil Aviation to address the issue, in which the federation said, “The airline industry in India is under extreme stress and is on the verge of closing down, or stopping operations.” This issue has not only been limited to airlines in the country but has also now affected the day-to-day lives of Indians, as well as small travel agency owners.
