These days it has been noticed that the distinction between the low cost airlines and full service airlines has blurred in the country to near invisibility. Due to the extreme financial crisis, the budget carriers have now stopped offering tickets as cheap as those available a few years back.

Even in the non-peak season the minimum fare available is between Rs. 4,000- Rs. 5,000. The transformation in the tariffs have been such that even the fares of the full service airlines are sometimes equivalent or less.

The review of the fares of the airfares in the upcoming weeks shows that the old stock ticket of Rs. 3,000 is extinct. Last year a one way trip from Mumbai to Goa in the month of September cost about Rs. 2,800.

But this year the minimum tariff is Rs. 3,900, while a ticket on the same sector in the month of October is not less than Rs. 9,000. The tour operators have highlighted that in certain instances the lowest fares are available in the full service airlines and not on the budget carriers. For instance on a weekend before DIwali, the fares on GoAir and Indigo flights from Mumbai to Delhi are as high as Rs. 16,000 while Air India charges Rs. 7,000.