P Krishna Kumar
New Delhi, December 05, (UNI) The operational stalemate at IndiGo, the largest airline of the country, that too in the peak travel season has left the travel agents and tour operators on tenterhooks. They are finding it challenging in shifting guests, especially in cases of group bookings, as capacities are constrained with other operating carriers in the peak travel season.
“I have a group of 27 guests coming from Israel tomorrow and have onward domestic seats booked for the group to Udaipur. I have put a coach on standby in the interest of the group itinerary booked months in advance,” said Rajnish Kayasth, a leading inbound tour operator and senior Vice President of Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO).
“70 per cent of the FITs and group travel is booked on IndiGo. Travel industry is reeling under a huge problem in the peak travel, wedding season in the country,” he added.
IndiGo has reported to have cancelled all their operations from Mumbai airport on Friday till 6 pm. Cancellations are also reported from other stations like Hyderabad, Delhi and Bengaluru as well.
“We are still in a shock. Shifting people to other airlines at the last moment is not easy. It’s a high travel season and airlines are running with capacity loads,” said Anil Kalsi, a leading travel agent and Vice President of Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI).
The ticket rates have also going through the roof which makes shifting customers to other carriers challenging for tour operators and travel agents because it throws the “packages” go haywire.
In a day and age, when AI and algorithms rule the pricing market when it comes to hotels, airlines, etc., other operators taking maximum advantage of the situation is not surprising, said Jyoti Mayal, former national President of Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI).
“Major airports are in a mess with passengers stranded everywhere,” she said.
Although there hasn’t been complaints so far from customers about refunds, and credit notes in the case of travel agents, travel industry watchers do foresee problems cropping up in the days to come as the cash flow of the airline getting impacted because of drop in new bookings.
IndiGo stalemate keeps travel industry on tenterhooks in peak travel season
