What is cost per km?
Cost per kilometre (₹/km) is the flight price divided by the route distance. It normalises price so you can compare routes of very different lengths fairly. A short flight at ₹3,000 for 300 km (₹10/km) is actually more expensive per km than a long flight at ₹5,500 for 1,100 km (₹5/km).
How are distances calculated?
Distances are calculated using the Haversine formula, which computes the great-circle distance between two geographic coordinates. This gives the straight-line distance over Earth's surface, accurate to within ~0.3% — more than sufficient for comparing relative costs.
Are the prices real-time?
No. The prices are from a precomputed dataset that represents typical/historical fare averages for Indian domestic routes. They are indicative and intended for comparison purposes, not for actual booking decisions. Always check a live booking platform before purchasing.
Which airports are covered?
The system currently covers major Indian domestic airports including Delhi (DEL), Mumbai (BOM), Bangalore (BLR), Hyderabad (HYD), Chennai (MAA), Kolkata (CCU), Kochi (COK), Pune (PNQ), Ahmedabad (AMD), Jaipur (JAI), Goa (GOI), and more.
How does the Compare tool work?
Enter one or more origin-destination pairs and click Compare. The backend looks up each route in the dataset and returns the distance, price, and calculated ₹/km. Results are sorted by cost per km (lowest = best value) and displayed as a table, chart, and map.
What does the Predictor show?
The Predictor shows monthly average prices for a route throughout the year. It highlights the cheapest month to travel, the current price (estimated), potential savings, and a booking-time recommendation. Note: the prediction is based on historical trend data, not a live ML model.
What is the Optimizer?
The Optimizer shows nearby alternative airports for your origin and destination, and provides cabin class and layover comparisons for a route. This can help you find cheaper options by considering alternative departure points.
What is the Heatmap?
The Heatmap provides a geographic visualisation of flight cost concentrations across India. It helps you identify which regions tend to have higher or lower cost-per-km values at a glance.
What technology powers this site?
The backend is a Python Flask REST API deployed on Render cloud using Gunicorn with gevent async workers. The frontend is vanilla HTML, CSS, and JavaScript — no framework needed. Charts use Chart.js and maps use Leaflet.
Why does the site sometimes show loading errors?
The backend is hosted on Render's free tier, which spins down after inactivity. The first request after a period of inactivity may take 30-60 seconds to wake the server. Subsequent requests will be fast. If you see an error, wait a moment and try again.
