"The airline should have given at least a couple of weeks notice before implementing the changes," said Thomas Cook chairman Pradip Madhavji. He added that such moves would only hassle tourists.

"Many people will not even be aware of the fare hike until they reach the airport. And if they come at the last minute, they could even miss the flight due to this procedural delay," said a city-based travel agent. However, IA officials said they would make all arrangements to help passengers.

Travel agents are uncertain about the new fare structure as they have not yet received any official communication from IA. "We are not sure what to charge from the customers as there is no official information yet," said an agent, adding that he did not know if the hike applied to dollar fares also.

Airline officials, however, said dollar fares willremain as before until further notice. These will come for revision later. The new rupee fare list has been sent to all the travel agents.

The increase in fares has drawn a lot of flak. "It is just a cost of inefficiency on the part of the airline which has to be borne by the public," an analyst said. This is the third consecutive year that IA has increased the fares.

IA announced a 11.2 per cent increase in passenger fares saying that fixed costs have gone up considerably due to several factors. These include a steep fall in the rupee, increase in landing and navigation charges, high import duty and fuel surcharge and high wage bill, said officials.

Meanwhile, the airline has also made certain changes in the flight schedule from Wednesday to Sunday. From October 1-4, flights IC 105 and IC 109 on the Mumbai-Bangalore route will be combined to leave Mumbai at 10-55 am. Similarly, both the return flights will be combined and will arrive in Mumbai at 3-15 pm. IC 609 and IC 107 on the same route will becombined to leave Mumbai at 6pm and will return at 9-45 pm. Flight timings on the Mumbai-Hyderabad-Mumbai route too have been altered.

There is also a change in the flight schedule of Alliance Air. Flights operating on Mumbai-Rajkot-Mumbai, Mumbai-Ahmedabad-Mumbai, Mumbai-Cochin-Mumbai have been rescheduled. Some of the flights have been cancelled, including CD444-443 on the Mumbai-Delhi-Mumbai route.