Indian and Pakistani expats cry foul as air fares skyrocket
AIRLINES ISSUE ALERTS ABOUT SOME TRAVEL AGENTS PROFITING FROM HIGH REPATRIATION DEMAND
Several Indian and Pakistani expats claim that unscrupulous travel agents are taking advantage of repatriation demand to increase prices of air tickets.
One Indian resident said a one-way ticket from Dubai to Mumbai cost him Dh1,500 when it should have been just half the amount. Another resident, Bharath M, also paid a similar amount for a ticket to Mumbai.
Air India warned travellers about this trend in a tweet on Sunday: “Cases of overcharging by travel agents have been reported. Seats are available for various destinations. If you face overcharging, do email us on gmsm@airindia.in,” it said.
P.G. Prageesh, chief of corporate communications at Air India Express, urged passengers taking repatriation flights to check the authenticity of travel agents they deal with. “We request all passengers to visit our website and follow us on Facebook and Twitter,” he said.
Why it happens
Punit Shah, general manager of Dubai-based City One Tourism & Travel, said the case is particularly accentuated when the airline does not have seats listed on the global distribution system (GDS) for multiple agents to sell their tickets.
“What happens here is that only a handful of agents tend to handle ticket sales for destinations of these airlines and are likely to hike rates according to demand. It would help if airlines list their seats under the GDS so there is a broad network of agents selling tickets. The margins can be kept really low.”
Besides Mumbai, other cities like New Delhi, Bengaluru and Chennai are also seeing a massive price hike on flights. Tickets from Abu Dhabi to Chennai, for example, are priced at Dh925, but agents are selling them for between Dh1,500 and Dh1,600.
Tickets from Sharjah to Kannur in Kerala cost Dh850, but agents sell them for between Dh1,200 and Dh1,600. “Agents are not selling for anything below Dh1,200. It is a rip off,” Shah said.
Similar case for Pakistan
According to Shah, agents are hiking prices on flights to Lahore, Islamabad, Karachi and Multan. The listed prices on airlines is between Dh1,000 and Dh1,200, but agents are selling tickets for Dh1,500, and even Dh2,500 in some cases.
Mahnaz Khan said she paid as much as Dh2,500 to a travel agent for a Dubai-Karachi flight for a blue-collar worker she wanted to help.
‘Enforce a standard rate’
Travel agents called upon authorities to set standard rates.
Sheela Thomas, a lawyer and social worker who has been helping stranded Indians return home, said: “I personally paid for the tickets of some workers, but this is not practical. There has to be a standard rate in place and agents must follow it as a rule.”