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Shashi Ashiwal

Passengers booking tickets at the Air India counter in Mumbai on Wednesday. —

Shubhra Tandon
Varada Bhat

Mumbai, Sept.9 Travel agents and other Indian carriers had a field day as customers clamoured for tickets after Jet Airways cancelled flights for the second consecutive day. Over 200 flights were cancelled on Wednesday, following the mass sick-leave by Jet’s protesting pilots.

While the Jet Airways counter wore a desolate look at the Mumbai airport, those of other airlines were crowded. Travel agents, who were busy filing for refunds or rescheduling trips for customers, said Air India and Kingfisher were charging Rs 12,000-20,000 for economy class on trunk routes during peak hour travel.

According to travel portal cleartrip.com, an economy ticket on Air India’s Mumbai-Delhi flight at 7 a.m. cost around Rs 20,487 while Kingfisher Airlines priced it at Rs 17,430. Usually, a seat on this sector would have cost Rs 4,000-6,500, an agent said.

Last-minute bookings even on low-cost carriers such as Spice Jet and GoAir were going from Rs 7,000 to 12,000 for different routes due to the sudden enhanced demand, travel agents said, adding that business travellers suffered the worst, as their trips were crucial and time-bound.

On busy sectors, ticket prices were up 25-30 per cent, and elsewhere 5-10 per cent higher, said Ms Bhawana Agarwal, Head of Air Business, Yatra.com.

An MBA student from Bangalore, who had come to Mumbai for a retail conference , had taken a Jet Airways round ticket for Rs 5,100. But, now, he had to pay a heavy price for his return trip to Bangalore. As a seat on an afternoon flight on low-cost carrier Indigo cost Rs 11,000, he opted for the late-night SpiceJet flight for which he was charged Rs 5,000. “I have been offered a refund, but that’s not imeediate as I booked through a travel agent. The refund will come later to the agent. I have no choice but to buy another ticket,” he said.

Representatives of the different airlines were not available, or did not want to comment on the development. But travel agents affirmed that the fares saw a spike in different sectors. “For sectors to which fewer flights operate, the fares were up by more than double the usual rates. Sectors like (Mumbai to) Jamnagar, Indore, Rajkot, Guwahati saw tickets going for Rs 9,000 to Rs 11,000 per head,” said an agent.

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