Air travellers may be celebrating the upcoming holiday season by paying more for plane tickets. The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (Caan) has approved a flat 24 percent hike in domestic airfares that will go into effect in two weeks, Tourism Ministry sources said.

The increase follows the recommendation of a seven-member Caan airfare revision committee which was reviewed by another panel led by Tourism Joint Secretary Suresh Acharya. Caan’s board okayed the proposal last Friday, and it has been sent to the Tourism Ministry for its go-ahead.

The ministry is reportedly unwilling to ramp up fares on remote sectors. “It is unlikely that ticket prices will be increased on flights to remote destinations,” said sources. The last time domestic airfares were reviewed was in February 2011.

Domestic airfares have two basic components. The government controls the price of a plane ticket while airlines are allowed to fix the surcharge if fuel prices fluctuate by at least Rs4 per litre.

If the new tariff is implemented, a seat on a flight from Kathmandu to Dhangadhi, the longest domestic route, will go up by at least Rs2,400. The present one-way fare is Rs10,100 which includes a fuel surcharge of Rs3,330.

A ticket on the shortest flight, Kathmandu-Simara, will go up by at least Rs600. Currently, a one-way ticket costs Rs1,540 and there is a Rs965 fuel surcharge.

The ministry had assigned Caan to study the technical aspects of the proposed fare hike as per a request made by the Airlines Operators Association of Nepal (AOAN) and the provision requiring airfares to be reviewed every two years.

According to ministry officials, airfares would have to be jacked up steeply by 97 percent considering the rate of inflation, a stronger US dollar and other components like aircraft lease costs, insurance premiums and maintenance charges in the last six years.

“But the committees were able to propose a smaller hike by taking into account the appreciation of the dollar.” The review is based on airline seat cost per hour per passenger.

Domestic carriers posted double-digit growth in passenger carriage in the first half of 2016, pulling out of a four-year dive as travellers chose to fly rather than drive over bone-jarring national highways.

According to Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), domestic airline passenger traffic jumped 10.82 percent to 741,128 during the January-June period. Statistics show that domestic carriers received 72,388 additional fliers in the first six months of 2016.

Passenger movement has been on a constant decline since 2012, marking a departure from the robust growth rates seen since 2008 when airlines were flying high due to competitive airfares and constant protests and road blockades forcing travellers to take to the air.

Airlines saw a heady growth of 13 percent in 2008 which jumped to 33 percent in 2009 as they cut fares amid stiff competition. Although passenger movement increased 12.83 percent in 2010, the growth rate started dropping in 2011 and has shown a negative growth since 2012.