PATNA, Dec. 7 -- Despite the Centre invoking its powers to trim 'opportunistic' pricing, airfares to and fro Patna and some other airports of Bihar kept soaring on Saturday, leaving travellers staring down a nightmare. Over 25 flights of the country's largest airline to Bihar's airports were cancelled on Saturday, owing to alleged shortage of pilots and restraints of the fresh safety rules. Close to 3,000 passengers were left to fend for themselves at gates or scrambling for alternatives. At Patna's Jay Prakash Narayan International airport, the chaos peaked on Friday with 25 of 29 scheduled IndiGo departures axed, leaving only a skeleton crew of services to Hyderabad, Ranchi and Lucknow limping along. Saturday saw another 14 cuts from the 31 planned flights, turning what should have been a bustling hub into a ghost town of rolling suitcases and frustrated sighs. In Darbhanga, a key gateway for the Mithila region, IndiGo's no-shows have jacked up one-way fares to Delhi into the stratosphere-anywhere from Rs.20,000 to a jaw-dropping Rs.47,000, while returns hover between Rs.17,500 and Rs.21,800, compared to the usual Rs.4,000-Rs.5,000 bargain. Gaya's modest airport, popular with pilgrims heading to the Bodhi Tree, hasn't escaped either. At Patna's terminal, long queues snaked around IndiGo counters, with families on wedding errands or holiday getaways caught in the crossfire. One harried parent from Darbhanga posted online: "Kids crying, no updates-IndiGo, where's the humanity?" A one-way hop from Patna to Bengaluru, typically a steal at Rs.7,000-Rs.8,000, now demands over Rs.58,000 for Sunday's slots. Likewise, Patna-Delhi travel was costing around Rs.41,500 against the normal Rs.5,000-Rs.6,000. Airfare to Patna and Mumbai has ballooned to Rs.90,000, hitting hardest during this mashup of wedding season, Christmas prep and year-end escapes. Airport Authority of India (AAI) officials at Patna attribute the spike to slashed seat supply from IndiGo's groundings and a passenger rush that's only growing. P4...