Few takers for airlines’ offers to book in advance
Domestic air traffic is growing month-on-month in June but passengers remain wary about booking tickets 30-60 days in advance, say industry executives.
Advance purchase discount offers launched by airlines in the last week had limited traction, they added. Airasia India launched its discount offer on June 12 for travel from August 1 with fares starting at ~1,177. The offer was timed to celebrate the airline’s seventh anniversary in India and promote its new website. Other airlines, including Indigo, followed suit with similar offers and matching low fares. Air India’s regional arm, Alliance Air, launched its three-day offer on Saturday with tickets priced at ~999 and above.
In May-end, the civil aviation ministry reduced the cap on domestic airline capacity to 50 per cent from 80 per cent and extended fare caps till July-end.
“Daily traffic has doubled from
the lows of May. We have started receiving queries for group bookings. Small travel agents, too, have resumed operations upon easing of Covid-19 restrictions. But average load factors are still around 55 per cent and most of the
bookings are for travel within seven days,” said a senior executive of a private airline.
Uncertainties on Covid curbs in various states and hassles in securing refunds for cancelled flights are also possible reasons for
customers not booking advance tickets, another executive said.
A total of 1,32,309 passengers flew in 1,245 flights on Sunday, the highest in June, so far. The number of daily departures also crossed the 1,000-mark on June 11 after a gap of
over a month, indicating signs of recovery.
“Due to relaxation of restrictions by several states and normalisation of activities, people are traveling back to metros like Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru from their hometowns in tier II and III cities. Bookings from cities like Varanasi, Darbhanga, Patna and Gorakhpur to metros have seen a jump of 45-50 per cent in the last two weeks,” said Manan Bajoria, associate vice-president (growth and marketing), ixigo.
Also, the number of people booking closer to date has reduced compared to May. “The share of bookings for travel within a week has reduced from 85-90 per cent in May to 70 per cent in June. Also, a key indicator has been the share of round trips, which has increased from less than 10 per cent to more than 20 per cent. Routes around Mumbai, Bengaluru and Delhi dominated the top sectors for flight bookings in the last two weeks,” said Rajiv Subramanian, vicepresident of Cleartrip.com.