For hundreds of holidaymakers, all their well crafted year-end travel plans have come crashing without taking off in the wake of no-frills carrier SpiceJet cancelling many flights.
Most disappointed are the middle class households who plan the itinerary as much as six months in advance, says G.Veera Mohan, a travel agent in Vishakhapatnam. While it is easier for those relatively better off to still cobble an alternative, for the middle class traveller their wallets could not withstand such shocks. They save for the holidays and to that extent their budget is limited, he says.
Making matters worse for such families as also travel agents like him is the timing. “November, December and January are peak holiday season,” explains Mr.Mohan, adding that it has impacted other travellers also.
A case in point is that of D.S.Anand, an educationist. He had booked tickets for family members and a few others on SpiceJet for his daughter’s wedding later this month. Much to his dismay, the flights figure among those cancelled by the air carrier.
Sounding worried Mr.Anand, who spoke to The Hindu over phone from Vishkapatnam on Tuesday, said round trip tickets for 31 people from Kolkata to Chennai, where the wedding is going to be held, were booked four months ago. That apart, he had also booked tickets for some from Vishakhapatnam to Chennai. Initially, the air carrier said it will be rescheduling the flight from Kolkata, but later cancelled that too. “When I booked, the cost per ticket was Rs.6,000 to 6,700 whereas now it is Rs.16,000 to 18,000 [each],” he said, adding: “I can’t afford them.”
If it has come as a rude shock for those like him and families eagerly looking forward to a break, the impact has been no less for the travel agents. According to Travel Agents Association of India chairman (Andhra Pradesh and Telangana) Ramidi Ajay Kumar “people are bombarding us”. Travel agents, he said, were paying customers cost of the tickets on the cancelled flights and themselves remain unsure of when SpiceJet will reimburse them.
For holidaymakers who could not get or afford tickets on other flights, it means the entire plan gone awry as also cancellation of the bookings for onward journeys, accommodation and cabs for local sight seeing. He confirmed there is an internal communication to the agents to stop booking SpiceJet tickets. On reports of some government support for SpiceJet, he remarked that the situation is akin to “a patient on ventilator.”
