IndiGo, Vistara shut bookings till May 31

Following the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation’s (DGCA) circular issued late on Sunday night directing all airlines “to refrain from booking tickets” after May 4, IndiGo and Vistara have decided not to take any bookings till May 31.

SpiceJet’s website shows that the airline is taking bookings from May 16 onwards. Attempts to book any ticket before that on various sectors shows the message “Sorry, no fares available for this date. Please select another date and try.”

A spokesperson of AirAsia India said the airline had complied with the DGCA order issued on April 19. “Until further notice from the regulators,” the spokesperson said when asked whether the airline had stopped bookings indefinitely. 

The DGCA circular adds that airlines will be given sufficient notice and time for restarting operations. “This is for strict compliance by all airlines,” the circular says.

Initially, the domestic airlines declined to follow the order and asked for greater clarity on when they would be allowed to reopen bookings.  But after some time, they decided to follow the latest DGCA circular, though with different dates till when they are not taking bookings. While SpiceJet is not taking bookings till May 15, domestic market leader IndiGo is not taking bookings till May 31. What prompted this change in thinking in the airlines was not immediately clear.

With IndiGo, the market leader with a close to 50 per cent domestic market share adhering to the government order on bookings, it was a matter of time before others also complied.

The decision not to take any bookings brings to an end days of differences between the domestic airlines and the Indian authorities on when the airlines will be allowed to take bookings and start operations.

The issue of taking bookings and operating flights came to the fore after the government decided to implement an all-India lockdown, which was initially till midnight April 14.

Some domestic airlines started taking bookings post April 15. Eventually, the Ministry of Civil Aviation directed them not to take any bookings till May 4 and refund passengers who had booked tickets post April 15. The Ministry said there should be no bookings till May 4 as the all-India lockdown had been extended till midnight May 3.

On April 18, Hardeep Puri, the Minister of Civil Aviation, tweeted advising the airlines to open their bookings only after the government took a decision on when flights would resume. This, however, did not cut much ice with the private airlines, which continued taking bookings till the DGCA circular was issued. 

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