Arindam Majumder | New Delhi April 20, 2020
IndiGo closed all its bookings till May 31, shortly after the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Sunday prevented all airlines from taking bookings till a final decision on lifting or easing restrictions on resuming air travel is announced. “It is brought to the notice of all concerned that no decision to commence flights on May 4 has been taken. All airlines are directed to refrain from booking tickets,” the DGCA order said.
A formal ban on forward bookings from the aviation regulator came after a tweet from Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri. It was only government-owned Air India which closed bookings after the minister’s tweet, while private airline executives said it was mere “advisory” and not a “binding order”.
On Sunday, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar made it clear that the central government has so far not taken any decision on starting train or airline services for passengers, asserting that any discussion on the issue is futile.
According to Ambit Capital, except market leader IndiGo, no other Indian carrier has the liquidity required to survive a lockdown of more than one month. The research didn’t take any government financial help into projection.
In its order, the regulator also clarified that sufficient time will be given to airlines before restarting operations, so that they are able to do bookings for those flights.
“This was one big issue raised by airlines that a closure of bookings cannot happen if enough time is not given to open sale. We have addressed this issue,” a DGCA official said.
Airline executives say that by industry standards, a minimum of 15 days advance notice should be given, so that they can successfully put their inventory on sale. Government officials said the opening of bookings by airlines was unfair as carriers weren’t refunding money on flights cancelled due to the lockdown and instead transferring it to a credit shell. ( Business Standard )
