Despite a pent-up demand for travel post pandemic, several issues, including delays in getting visas, rising airfares and staffing problems at airlines, have dampened summer travel plans for the industry and travellers.

For almost two-and-a-half years, the travel and aviation industry players have been convincing people to hit the road. However, now that the skies have mostly opened up, players find themselves battling with other problems. As a crippling effect, this is impacting international travel.

‘Missed opportunity’

According to industry watchers, this is a missed opportunity. “People finally wanted to get out this summer and meet their family and friends abroad. However, embassies, airlines and airports are not able to cope up with the demand because they are short-staffed. In my view, this is a missed opportunity,” Jyoti Mayal, President of Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI), said.

Last week, London’s Heathrow airport imposed a two-month cap on daily passenger traffic to 100,000 people through September 11, asking airlines to refrain from selling summer tickets, according to a release. Heathrow airport isn’t the only one — Gatwick airport, Sydney airport, Amsterdam airport, Frankfurt airport and Changi airport are among multiple others facing such a crunch.

If that was not enough, due to being extremely short-staffed, airlines such as Lufthansa, Delta, Southwest, EasyJet, Alaska, British Airways and JetBlue, among many others culled hundreds of flights. This resulted in frustrated passengers standing in long queues at airports, lost luggage, long layovers and acute disappointment.

Executives from Indian carriers flying to these destinations said the current situation is affecting all airlines. “We are monitoring and coping with the challenges to the best of our abilities. We are also monitoring our operations to Heathrow, based on the latest guidelines but the flights are already at high load factors,” said one such executive.

ATF costs

A major concern that has been bothering the aviation and travel industry players is the issue of higher ATF costs and inflation. Due to the Russia-Ukraine war, ATF costs have zoomed up by at least 100 per cent. Fuel costs are approximately 40 per cent of a flight’s operating cost. “The inflation and higher ATF costs are pushing airlines to charge higher airfares and making travel expensive for passengers, thus being a dampener,” said another airline executive.

Another major problem the industry is facing is that of the visa challenge. This has left travel agencies wondering whether or not to book more international holidays. “While the pre-Covid era saw European countries being the preferred choice of destinations from India, this year, the bookings did not witness any spike during the summer season,”  Aditya Gupta, Senior Vice President, Hotels & Holidays, Yatra.com, said.

Visa applications for Schengen countries are witnessing a delay of about 20-25 days on an average from the date of appointment. Moreover, key destinations like the UK are taking a minimum time of 8-9 weeks while the average time being taken by Canada and Australia is 12 weeks, they explained.

Though most airlines and airports have put up openings for multiple positions, Mayal said, “Hiring them, retraining them and then putting them to work is going to take some more time. While the summer season is a spent cause for now, the players could look at making the most of the student travel.”

Expecting normalcy

“The visa challenge is two-pronged, obtaining appointment slots coupled with extended processing time, with Consular teams adding to their resources, we hope to see an easing up in 30-40 days,” Rajeev Kale, President & Country Head – Holidays, MICE, VISA, Thomas Cook India, said.

Almost all the players BusinessLine spoke to said they expect normalcy in international travel by the end of this calendar year for destinations in the US, and by the end of FY23 for other countries like the UK and Europe.

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