Online air travel bookings fall post fuel surcharge hike

Mumbai/New Delhi: No sooner did airlines hike the fuel surcharge than customer interest in air travel has waned.
While MakeMyTrip.com reported a 5-10 per cent drop in bookings on Wednesday and Thursday, Cleartrip.com saw bookings back to the levels of the week starting June 1. Yatra.com, however, says the impact is limited to leisure travel.
National carrier Air India and low-cost carriers SpiceJet and GoAir increased the fuel surcharge by Rs 400. While the hike from SpiceJet and GoAir was effective from late Wednesday night, on Air India’s domestic flights it will come into effect from Friday.Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines also raised fuel surcharge on domestic routes on Wednesday by Rs 400.
Cleartrip’s Mr Noel Swain told Business Line, “We saw a 35 per cent surge in bookings last week when the airlines announced promotional fares.”
Whether the sentiment is here to stay or is just an immediate reaction to the hike will be known in week, said Mr Keyur Joshi of MakeMyTrip.
While Yatra’s Ms Bhawana Agarwal does not see any immediate impact on the portal’s booking scenario, she does concede that families would find air travel expensive.
19/06/09 Shubhra Tandon/Ashwini Phadnis/Business Line

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General Jun 2009