Flying back home for Holi has become a “costly affair” with airfares going north because of seat crunch.

There is no room in several Patna-bound flights from different destinations. Few seats available in some aircraft are coming for a premium.

Travel agents and officials of airlines operating from the city claimed that tickets were not getting booked in many flights. The fare is abnormally high in others till March 27.

Some people had to scrap their plan to visit their native place during Holi because of exorbitant airfares. Delhi-based Shubham Kumar is one among them.

“I would not be coming home this Holi because I am not getting tickets in any direct flight to Patna. Even if tickets are available in hopping flights, the prices are very high,” he said.

Tour operators in the city claimed that the airfares in different sectors had shot up twice to thrice (from usual fares) because of the Holi rush. The normal fare of Rs 6,000 on New Delhi-Patna route has gone as high as Rs 20,000-22,0000. On Mumbai-Patna route, tickets are available in the range of Rs 15,000 to Rs 18,000. Usually, tickets are available in this sector for around Rs 9,000.

Raman Jha, the manager of Super Travels, Patna, said: “Most people want to celebrate Holi with their families. The highest rush in the air traffic is being observed on the New Delhi-Patna route. Tickets are not available in many flights from today (Monday) to March 27. Tickets on the New Delhi-Patna route cannot be booked for less than Rs 20,000 for the next two days. The fare on other routes is also abnormally high in the same period.”

The upper limit of airfare on Calcutta-Patna route for Tuesday was Rs 37,408 (on a flight via New Delhi). The fare on Mumbai-Patna route (via Bhopal and New Delhi) for the same day went up to Rs 47,909.

Airlines corroborated the rise in airfares before Holi. “We are getting over 100 bookings on each flight on the Delhi-Patna route. The total number of seats in every flight is around 125. The resultant demand-supply gap is the reason behind the temporary surge in airfares,” said a senior executive of Air India at Jaiprakash Narayan International Airport.

The airfares would remain high for a couple of days after Holi in the outbound flights from the city. “The people who had come to their native places in Bihar from Delhi would be heading back to the national capital after Holi, prompting a similar rush in flights and the resultant surge in airfares,” said a senior executive of GoAir.