Jet Airways on Friday launched a new Delhi-Patna-Delhi flight to meet the Holi rush. The flight will operate till March 25.

To cope with the increased passenger traffic, the airline will launch two more flights in summer under its plan to increase total number of countrywide flights from 600 to 650.

"A large number of people who work in metro cities, including Delhi, return to the state for Holi," said a Jet official. "Passenger flow increases substantially during this period. To cope with this growing demand, we decided to start a new flight from March 10 to ease out passenger traffic."

The new flight - 9W 771 - will leave Delhi for Patna at 11.15am and reach the city around 12.55pm.

The same flight will leave for Delhi (as 9W 772) at 1.25 pm and reach Delhi at 3pm, the airline official said.

The demand for air tickets can be gauged from the fact that all tickets for flight 9W 771 for March 11 and 12 are already sold out.

Tickets of two other Jet Airways flights - 9W 727 and 9W 730 - have also been sold out for both days (March 11 and 12). This is happening despite the tickets selling for as high as Rs 24,000.

Air tickets on the Delhi-Patna-Delhi sector are selling at exorbitant prices particularly for March 11 and 12. GoAir is charging around Rs 12,000 per ticket while Indigo is charging in the range of Rs 12,000-16,000. In normal times, a one-way ticket between Delhi and Patna costs around Rs 5,000.

The situation is likely to remain high in the post-Holi period, too. Every airline is charging between Rs 7,000 and Rs 9,000 for tickets on March 14.

With increased thoroughfare security becomes an issue. Expectedly, security has been beefed up at Patna airport. Police patrolling has increased both inside and outside the airport premises.

Enhanced checking is in place and no vehicle is allowed into the portico area. A Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) official at Patna airport said: "CISF personnel have been deployed on roads leading to the terminal building and asked to remain extra vigilant. While frisking has been enhanced, even parking lots are being closely monitored. We request all passengers to cooperate with the personnel."

Patna airport director Rajendra Singh Lahouria said: "Tracking, profiling and surveillance of any movement has been enhanced and this will continue for at least a week." This was a standard operating procedure, he said.

Electronic and manual surveillance, too, have been increased.

Anti-sabotage checking teams are being kept on alert. Random checking was also being carried out with the CISF's canine unit being used aggressively.