Port Blair (Sri Vijay Puram): Mounting public anger over the unabated surge in airfares between the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and the mainland spilled onto the streets on Wednesday, with residents, youth groups and other stakeholders staging a major protest near Veer Savarkar International Airport and demanding immediate government intervention to make air travel affordable.
The protesters marched towards the airport, raising slogans against what they described as unchecked and exploitative airfare practices. Their central demand was clear: impose a year-round upper cap on passenger fares and treat air connectivity to the geographically isolated islands as an essential public service rather than a luxury.
Drawing attention to the steep disparity in travel regulation, protest spearheaded by the chairman of the ANTCC Campaign Committee G Bhasker questioned why local transport operators are bound by fixed fares while airlines are allowed to charge highly fluctuating prices on a route that islanders have little alternative but to use. They cited instances of one-way fares to mainland cities soaring to ₹23,500, ₹34,000 and even higher. In one case, a family of four travelling from Delhi reportedly spent more than ₹1.5 lakh on air tickets alone. The situation is even more alarming for critically ill patients requiring emergency referral to mainland hospitals, with stretcher-bound travel reportedly costing several lakhs of rupees.
The protesters said the airfare crisis has hit every section of society—from patients and students to daily wage earners and families. For islanders requiring specialised medical treatment unavailable locally, a mainland referral can become a crippling financial burden. Students studying outside the islands and low-income families are also increasingly finding air travel beyond their reach.
The tourism industry, a key driver of the islands’ economy, is another major casualty. Protesters warned that soaring airfares are deterring visitors and triggering a ripple effect across hotels, travel agencies, ferry operators, scuba-diving centres and other tourism-related businesses.
Questioning the lack of stronger regulatory safeguards for the remote and strategically important archipelago, the demonstrators demanded permanent measures to prevent arbitrary fare escalation and ensure reliable and affordable connectivity throughout the year.
Warning that the protest was only the beginning, the leaders said the agitation would intensify if the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the authorities failed to act.
The message from the streets was unmistakable: for the people of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, air connectivity is not a luxury—it is their only highway to the mainland, and they can no longer afford to be held hostage by sky-high fares.
