Online air travel bookings fall post fuel surcharge hike

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.

Jet Airways hikes fares by Rs 400National 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. Airline officials, however, claim that the latest hike in fuel surcharge does not mean that air fares have increased.

Air India hikes fuel surcharge on ATF rise"If one were to compare prevailing domestic airfares with what they were in July last year, then the current fare levels are almost 25 per cent lower," said a SpiceJet official.

However, customers seem to think otherwise. Cleartrip's 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 Keyur Joshi of MakeMyTrip.

More India business stories: 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. Aviation Turbine Fuel prices have risen by 33 per cent since March; however, the airlines did not hike charges till Wednesday.

Air India Rescheduled Monthly Salary

Air India, India's national carrier, will postpone monthly remuneration payments for the 31,000 employees due to lack of liquidity crisis instinctive of lukewarm demand and overcapacity, the company said Monday.

The senior official of Air India told that Air India is fighting of its survival. "We are in a low-fare regime. The fuel tax is going up. The number of passengers is not that high. There is excess capacity in the market," Air India spokesman said in an interview. "The situation is not peculiar to Air India. It goes across the board in India and globally."