Flight fare analysis: Last-minute flight bookings cost 25% more on average
A ticket bought the day before departure costs about 25% more than the same journey booked 30 days ahead. On all 54 metro routes tracked, not one is cheaper to book late. The penalty runs from 3% on Bengaluru to Chennai to 121% on Ahmedabad to Pune. Thirty days out is the floor. Booking two or three months ahead is slightly dearer than booking one.
A new analysis by the TOI-DPA Airline Price Index reveals that booking a flight last-minute can cost 25% more on average across 54 routes connecting major Indian cities. Booking a month in advance consistently saves about a fifth of the fare compared to last-minute purchases, and no route in the study set benefits from last-minute booking.
The gap between the best time to book and the worst time is most pronounced on the Ahmedabad to Pune route, where last-minute fares are 121% higher. For Kolkata routes during Durga Puja, booking a month ahead saves between 3% and 7% compared to day-of booking. Short, dense routes with many daily flights tend to have fares that remain relatively stable as the departure date approaches, while longer, less frequently served routes see fares increase significantly as the departure date nears.
Written by urgent.news from Times of India's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
