A day after two of the country’s largest passenger carriers – IndiGo and Jet Airways, which command over 50% market share in domestic flying ? got in wrong with online travel portal MakeMyTrip.com, the online airline ticket seller on Wednesday said it has not flouted any rules of the civil aviation regulator, the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), by displaying special discounted fares of some airlines on its website.
?We would like to maintain as before that fares and inventory on our website are controlled by the airlines,? the New York Stock Exchange-listed MakeMyTrip said in a statement. ?All the fares, including the special fares, are displayed as per the guidelines received and approved by the participating airlines.
Jet Airways , India’s largest passenger carrier by revenues, said it slashed its business with the portal, while its rival low-cost passenger carrier IndiGo stopped its ticket sales through the website. The two airlines flew 51.1% of total fliers in March, data from the DGCA show.
?While we have not pulled out our entire inventory, we have limited the available inventory to them for sale,? said a Jet Airways spokesperson.
?The arbitrary display of fares and ?opaque pricing? is anti-consumer and in violation of the DGCA norms and directives,? IndiGo?s president and chief executive Aditya Ghosh said on Tuesday, while announcing the pullout from MakeMyTrip.
Pulling out of a travel portal is the airline?s decision. ?It is the airline?s prerogative to decide which sales platforms they wish to be present on. So, we can?t do anything about this,? a senior DGCA official told FE.
?As far as opaque pricing is concerned, the travel portals had assured us that they have discontinued the practice. We will look into the matter and see if they are still continuing with such schemes.?
MakeMyTrip sells tickets to passengers hiding the airline identity until the tickets are bought. The ?opaque fares? scheme issues lowest fare tickets, and this caused a furore as most of the tickets were of Kingfisher Airlines, which had canceled about 30-40 flights after failing to repay its lenders, lessors, aviation fuel suppliers and airport developers. Kingfisher now operates a revised schedule of 120 daily flights, less than a third of what it operated last year.
Complaints from rivals on ?opaque fares? scheme forced the DGCA to stop such practice.
?It is not a question of opaque pricing at all,? said an official with a leading Indian online travel agency. The person did not wish to be quoted as the firm continues to do business with all the airlines. ?Ever since Kingfisher Airlines has started cutting fares after the reduction in their operations, other airlines have been pushing us to drop Kingfisher completely.?
?Kingfisher has been a problem as they delayed in making payments for the refunds of the canceled flights, but since their accounts have been defrozen, things have improved,? the person added. ?Flight cancellations have also not taken place after the pilots were paid and they are getting seat factors of 55-60% because their fares are the cheapest in the market.?
However, people familiar with IndiGo say that the pullout is not a pressure tactic. ?MakeMyTrip has been promoting Kingfisher Airlines tickets under the ‘cheapest fares’ scheme, which is misleading passengers,? said a person close to the airline. ?They don?t take responsibility for any flight cancellations. Therefore, it was decided that we do not want to associate ourselves with such a website.?
?The pullout does not in any way hamper customers. IndiGo tickets are still available on other online platforms as well as the airline?s own website,? the person said.
