Terming the private airlines move to suspend operations on August 18 as unreasonable and uncalled for, travel agents have slammed the airlines for holding the government and country to ransom with the government not conceding to their demands of lower taxes and airport charges.
However, it is not a panicky situation for them as agents said they will re-schedule their passenger bookings to other airlines or to other dates.
Voicing a strong reaction, head of an online travel agency said, ?There have been no changes in the taxation recently and all these airlines had built their business models based on the same taxation laws. Just because they can?t sustain the business during tough times, doesn’t mean that they will hold the country and the government to ransom.?
Meanwhile, the civil aviation minister said, in case airlines walk their talk, Air India will not participate in the decision of ?select private airlines and will mount additional services on August 18 so as to reduce any inconvenience to the public.? Stic Travels chairman Subhash
Goyal said, ?How can the tax-payers? money go into bailing out private airlines. This is unheard of.?
Keyur Joshi, co-founder and COO of Makemytrip.com, said all passengers will be taken care of by the agency and we will reschedule all travel to Air India or Indian Airlines or to other dates if need be. ?There will be all kinds of people flying on that day or emergencies or other important engagements. This is very sad on the part of airlines,? he said.
While maintaining that it is unlikely that airlines will actually go on a strike on August 18, Travel Agents Federation of India president Pradeep Lulla he raises a question, ?Although the government should support airlines in the face of mounting losses, to what extent can the government help??
