IndiGo’s cancellations have come down, but many passengers are still not trusting the airline, tour operators said on Monday.
They said that despite the government’s price cap, fares in some sectors were high, and only a few seats were available.
Sources said IndiGo officials met several tour operators on Monday to seek their support, stating that things were getting normal.
However, many passengers are choosing other airlines for important meetings, cancelling the IndiGo tickets purchased earlier.
A group of five corporate executives is scheduled to fly from Calcutta to Delhi on Tuesday morning.
“They bought tickets on an IndiGo flight 10 days ago, for ₹7,000 each. The flight is scheduled as operational, but the group is not convinced that it will finally take off,” said their travel agent. So, on Monday morning, they cancelled the IndiGo tickets and booked seats on an Air India flight, paying ₹17,000 for each ticket.
“They have an urgent meeting and so did not want to take a chance,” said the travel agent.
“It will take time for IndiGo to regain the confidence of passengers. Till then, the fares are likely to remain high,” said Anil Punjabi, chairman, Travel Agents Federation of India, eastern region.
He mentioned that for certain flights to Delhi scheduled for Tuesday, the prices were displayed as ₹22,000 on Monday evening, while for Mumbai, they were ₹25,000.
The government on Saturday issued an advisory calling for airfare caps of ₹7,500 to ₹18,000 to contain the ticket price hike triggered by the IndiGo flight cancellations.
The caps apply only to domestic flights. The cap is ₹7,500 for distances up to 500km, ₹12,000 for travel between 500km and 1,000km, ₹15,000 for travel between 1,000km and 1,500km, and ₹18,000 for distances beyond 1,500km.
These figures exclude the user development fee, passenger service fee and taxes on the air tickets. There are no caps on business-class or the already-subsidised UDAN fares. The fare caps will remain in force until the situation s
tabilises, the civil aviation ministry said.
“The fares are still high, and seats are also not available in several sectors because many flights are still cancelled. It would remain so for the next few days until the travel backlog is cleared,” said Anjani Dhanuka, chairman of the Travel Agents Association of India, eastern region.
He said a business-class seat on a Calcutta-Mumbai flight was ₹60,000 on Monday.
Many passengers are paying more because they are forced to take connecting flights after direct IndiGo flights were cancelled.
A lawyer and his wife were scheduled to take an IndiGo flight from Mumbai to Calcutta on Monday morning.
“The flight was cancelled, and he had important work, so he had to return. So we booked him on an Air India Express flight with a stopover at Bagdogra. The tickets cost ₹30,000 each,” said his travel agent.
