EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE THE HINDU CHENNAI WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2019 NATION 9 EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE Weather Watch Airlines hit as Deepavali travel fails to take off Rainfall, temperature & air quality in select metros yesterday Fares on key metro routes are down 22% on Chennai­Delhi from ₹5,688 to ₹4,382. by 30% at a time when it usually peaks The Hindu spoke to Minis­ ter of Civil Aviation Hardeep Jagriti Chandra gust and September. On Singh Puri on this crisis in New Delhi Monday, full­service carrier the aviation sector, and he Deepavali is a time when Vistara even launched its said, “No, low fares are not most Indians spare no ex­ ‘grand international sale’ for due to an economic slow­ pense to be with their fami­ destinations like Bangkok, down. Is any plane going lies. But not this year. The re­ Dubai, and Singapore for re­ empty, not at all. LCCs are luctance to spend on air turn fares starting at ₹14,999. competing against each oth­ travel this festival season has er and dumbing down fares.” dampened celebrations and ‘Industry­wide trend’ However, both the airline is making airlines nervous, “The slowdown is beginning executives quoted above said who are forced to lower air­ to bite us. The demand for that “competitive pricing is fares to fill up their planes. air travel is not growing as country on the condition of many months, industry in­ said another senior execu­ an outcome of weak Data from the travel portal compared to the same time anonymity. siders say by August its im­ tive of another airline. demand”. Yatra.com shows that fares last year. As a result, our DGCA’s monthly data pact had diminished. Data shows that airfares “People are being more on key metro routes are yields (average fare per pas­ shows domestic traffic “Demand is stagnant due booked 15 days before the cautious than they have been Temperature Data: IMD, Pollution Data: CPCB, Map: INSAT/IMD (Taken at 18.00 Hrs) down by 30%, while this is senger mile) are lower. I growth rate was at (­)4% in to a slowing economy. Eco­ date of travel have dropped in the past. But going by the Forecast for Wednesday: Heavy to very heavy rainfall likely over usually a time airlines hike don’t see this improving for April; it rose to 6% in June nomy class is really strug­ on Delhi to Chennai route by prevailing last minute fare coastal Karnataka, coastal Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Konkan & airfares due to a huge de­ several months to come. This and then again fell to 1.18% in gling. This is a very serious 44% from ₹5,571 last year to rise trends, we could expect Goa, Telangana, Rayalaseema, interior Karnataka, Kerala & Mahe, mand and are able to make is an industry­wide trend,” September. While the clo­ situation as airlines depend ₹3,071 this year, Delhi to a rise in fares as we get closer Chhattisgarh, central Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and up for losses piled up during said a top official at one of sure of Jet Airways in mid­ on peak season to make up Pune by 30% from ₹5,219 last to the booking dates.” said Karaikal. the lean months of July, Au­ the leading airlines in the April was to be blamed for for losses in other seasons,” year to ₹3,631 this year and Yatra.com’s Sharat Dhall. city rain max min city rain max min Agartala............. 7.6....33.0....24.0 Kozhikode............... 18.2....31.0....24.0 Ahmedabad...........—....33.0....22.0 Kurnool .......................—....31.0....22.0 Aizawl...................—....26.0....17.0 Lucknow......................—....31.0....18.0 IN BRIEF Allahabad..............—....31.0....20.0 Madurai.................. 30.0....32.0....23.0 Bengaluru ........ 38.9....28.0....20.0 Mangaluru ...................—....29.0....23.0 Banking services partially hit Ayodhya ‘deepotsav’ Bhopal ..................—....28.0....20.0 Mumbai .................... 9.8....28.0....24.0 Bhubaneswar.........—....31.0....24.0 Mysuru ................... 20.0....28.0....19.0 Chandigarh ...........—....31.0....16.0 New Delhi ...................—....32.0....17.0 Chennai ........... 25.7....28.0....24.0 Patna ..........................—....31.0....22.0 given State Fair tag Coimbatore ........ 0.8....28.0....21.0 Port Blair................ 10.0....30.0....24.0 as unions protest merger bid Dehradun..............—....30.0....14.0 Puducherry ............... 4.1....28.0....23.0 Gangtok................—....20.0....14.0 Pune....................... 42.4....29.0....21.0 special correspondent Goa.................. 33.7....32.0....24.0 Raipur ........................... ....28.0....22.0 LUCKNOW Guwahati ..............—....31.0....21.0 Ranchi.........................—....28.0....20.0 We will seek support from Opposition parties, say leaders Nirvani Akhara Hubballi................—....26.0....21.0 Shillong.......................—....24.0....13.0 IAF carries out twin The Uttar Pradesh govern­ Hyderabad ............—....29.0....22.0 Shimla.........................—....21.0....11.0 firing of BrahMos Special Correspondent ment has granted the status seeks right to Imphal ............... 3.6....29.0....18.0 Srinagar.......................—........ —........ — NEW DELHI Jaipur ...................—....32.0....19.0 Thiruvananthapuram...... 3.0....33.0....24.0 NEW DELHI of State fair to the Deepotsav Kochi ............... 17.6....30.0....23.0 Tiruchi.................... 26.0....30.0....23.0 Two BrahMos surface-to- Services in some public sec­ Mela to be held in Ayodhya ‘Shebait’ Kohima .................—....24.0....14.0 Vijayawada ............... 6.6....27.0....25.0 surface missile tests were tor banks were partially af­ during Deepavali. Kolkata .................—....32.0....25.0 Visakhapatnam ........ 26.8....27.0....25.0 conducted as part of routine fected on Tuesday with two The festival, in which ov­ Indo-Asian News Service (Rainfall data in mm; temperature in Celsius) operational training at the unions observing a nation­ er 5.5 lakh lamps will be lit New Delhi Pollutants in the air you are breathing Yesterday Trak Island in the Andaman & wide one­day strike to prot­ on October 26, will be held CITIES SO2 NO2 CO PM2.5 PM10 CODE The Supreme Court on Ahmedabad..... ..— 130 .21 ..196 .123 ....* Nicobar group of islands on est against the Centre’s pro­ at an estimated cost of ₹133 Tuesday allowed Nirvani Bengaluru ....... ..2 .45 108 ....32 ...46 ....* In observation made at October 21 and 22, the IAF posed merger of banks and Chennai .......... 11 .32 .58 ....69 .....— ....* 4.00 p.m., Varanasi, Uttar crore, government spokes­ Akhara, one of the Hindu Pradesh recorded an said on Tuesday. banking reforms. Delhi .............. ..5 .75 .26 ..260 .299 ....* overall air quality index person Shrikant Sharma parties in Ayodhya title dis­ Hyderabad ...... ..5 .40 .35 ....88 .....— ....* (AQI) score of 276 No govt. jobs for those The strike, called by the said. pute, to file a note seeking Kolkata........... 12 .57 .29 ..220 .129 ....* indicating a severe level of All­India Bank Employees Lucknow......... ..2 .30 .50 ..328 .....— ....* pollution. In contrast, with over 2 children With the change, the Mela right to manage the wor­ Eloor, Kerala recorded a Association (AIBEA) and the Mumbai .......... ..5 .22 110 ....32 ...52 ....* healthy AQI score of 30. GUWAHATI will now be planned by the ship of deity as the ‘She­ Pune............... 87 ...8 .68 ....36 ...34 ....* Two years after it adopted a Bank Employees Federation District Magistrate of Ayod­ bait’, a person who takes Visakhapatnam 26 .45 .56 ....24 ...28 ....* of India (BEFI) saw the parti­ population policy, the Assam hya. Earlier, the Tourism De­ care of the deity and man­ Air Quality Code: * Poor * Moderate * Good (Readings indicate average AQI) cipation of 3 lakh employees Bank employees taking part in the strike at Azad Maidan in Cabinet on Monday decided partment organised it. ages its daily affairs. SO2: Sulphur Dioxide. Short-term exposure can harm the respiratory system, to make government jobs out and led to about 20 lakh Mumbai on Tuesday. * EMMANUAL YOGINI The decision was taken making breathing difficult. It can affect visibility by reacting with other air The Nirmohi Akhara particles to form haze and stain culturally important objects such as statues of bounds for people with banking instrument, inlcud­ given the “international sta­ had filed the suit seeking and monuments. more than two children. The ing cheques worth around stop the merger of 10 public cept it as the merger itself tus” of the festival and on Shebait right in 1959. Both NO2: Nitrogen Dioxide. Aggravates respiratory illness, causes haze to form by reacting with other air particles, causes acid rain, pollutes coastal waters. policy will come into effect ₹15,000 crore not being sector banks. was the bone of contention. the proposals sent by the Nirmohi Akhara and Nirva­ from January 1, 2021. cleared, AIBEA general se­ Mr. Venkatachalam said “Merger of