Flying to Kolkata for Durga Puja? Be ready to pay 71% more on Oct 16

NEW DELHI: On most routes in India, a ticket for a flight three days away costs more than one for the same flight a month later. That is how airline pricing works. Seats get dearer as the plane fills and the date closes in.On flights into Kolkata this October, the rule has flipped.An analysis of airfares captured on the morning of September 16 across 53 domestic routes connecting Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Pune shows that a seat into Kolkata for October 16 is priced far above a seat for next week, for next month, and even for boarding a plane the same day.What do the numbers show?For each route, fares were recorded for six departure dates at once: the same day, and one, seven, 30, 60 and 90 days ahead.