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India’s private airlines have restarted taking reservations for domestic and international travel, their websites showed. A source told Mint that the airlines again began taking reservations on Saturday. Spicejet and GoAir are taking reservations with departures from May 16, while Indigo and Vistara do it to travel from June 1. State-owned Air India has yet to restart reservations for any travel.
The companies’ move comes exactly a week after the civil aviation ministry caught them for taking reservations, even as restrictions on the movement of people, imposed to prevent the spread of covid-19, were still in effect. They were told not to make reservations until further instructions.
In the first instance, while private airlines had restarted booking for just a few days and then restarted, it was Air India’s decision on April 18 to join its ranks that upset the authorities. Then they were forced to tell all airlines to stop booking.
A May 16 Spicejet flight from Delhi to Bangalore is currently available at ₹3,500. Indigo is charging the same price for the route for the June 1 trip. A June 1 flight to Delhi-Kolkata Vistara is available for ₹3,800 while Indigo is charging ₹3,400 for the same. A June 1 Delhi-Mumbai flight is available at Vistara for ₹4,400 while Go Air is charging ₹2,500 for a May 16 flight on the same route.
It is unclear whether the airlines obtained the approval of the ministry to restart reservations. The central government eased some restrictions for some companies on Saturday, and airlines may have taken it as a signal to restart their business, as they won’t arrive a day too soon for them as they struggle with high fixed costs in one sector. highly competitive. All airlines responded by making job or salary cuts or sending their licensed staff without pay.
The airlines had come in for criticism for taking reservations even when they weren’t allowed to, and therefore blocking people’s money. In many cases, the money was not refunded to the airlines creating a “credit deposit” for their clients and agents to book later. Customers were thus in a peculiar situation, blocked by the airline to fly with them next time, even if they did not want to.
This also hurt agents like MakeMyTrip and EaseMyTrip, as they pay money upfront for bulk bookings, but did not have access to the “wallet” that received refunds when customers canceled their tickets.
