Former Union minister P. Chidambaram on Saturday said that flight fares from Srinagar to Delhi surged to as high as Rs 65,000 within hours of the terrorist attack in Pahalgam on April 22, prompting airlines to respond that they had capped ticket prices..

“Mr Rohit Singh, former Secretary, Consumer Affairs, GoI writes in ET today that "within hours of Tuesday's Pahalgam terrorist attack" flights from Srinagar to Delhi spiked the fares from the usual Rs 6000-8000 to Rs 65,000,” the Congress leader wrote on his X (formerly Twitter) handle.

“I hope it is not true. Air India and Indigo must confirm or deny the statement. The Minister of Civil Aviation must confirm or deny the statement. By the time the Government issued an advisory and the airlines (reluctantly) deployed extra flights, according to Mr Singh, flights had been sold out presumably at the higher fares. The spike in fares is certainly not a terrorist attack on passengers. It is of a lesser intensity, but not much less. The least the airlines can do after Mr Singh's expose is to refund the difference to the passengers who had bought tickets at the higher fares out of panic,” he added.

Both IndiGo and Air India replied to the post.

"We stand in solidarity with the nation and have always taken steps to assist our customers. IndiGo fares have never been to the levels quoted in the tweet,” the airline wrote. “We had proactively moderated our fares and waived cancellation and change fees for affected customers, widely communicating these measures through social media and press releases on April 23, 2025.”

Air India replied with a repost of its older post, saying: "As previously announced, Air India has capped fares on flights out of Srinagar, and this was widely shared on X, other social media platforms, and in the media. We remain committed to the safety and welfare of all our passengers, especially during such challenging times."

Chidambaram is not the only one to have highlighted on social media a spike in fares. Others who have done so include the actress Swatika Mukherjee.

On April 24, two days after the Pahalgam terrorist attack, The Telegraph Online had found that airfares from Srinagar remained steep.

Price of flight tickets from Srinagar to Kolkata on 24th April, 2025.

Tickets for flights to Bengaluru on IndiGo for the following day were priced between Rs 16,000 and Rs 24,000, while fares to Mumbai ranged between Rs 13,000 and Rs 21,000 on the same airline.

On SpiceJet, a Srinagar-Delhi ticket had soared to Rs 30,000, and a flight to Kolkata was listed at an even steeper Rs 52,000.