Jet Airways, India's largest airline by market share, has told leading travel portals that it could snap ties with them unless they agree to drop a controversial scheme in which a flier gets to know the name of the carrier only after booking a ticket.
Terming the scheme a "scam", Jet Airways CEO Nikos Kardassis said these practices were "damaging the market" and needed to be reined in.
"I've had some strong words with makemytrip.com and have threatened them that we will pull out all inventory from their portal if they don't stop this scam. If the aviation regulator (DGCA) does not take any action on this, we will pull the plug on travel portals that participate in this scam," Kardassis told Anindya Upadhyay of ET.
On Saturday, March 24, a report in this newspaper described a scheme in which travel portals such as makemytrip. com, yatra.com and goibibo, were offering huge discounts on flights without revealing the name of the airline till payment was made.
The aim of this scheme, described variously as discount or special fares by the portals, is largely to get rid of tickets of Kingfisher Airlines, a debtladen carrier. Some passengers, unaware that they were buying Kingfisher tickets, have subsequently been booked on flights that have later been cancelled.
Jet Airways has complained against this practice to the civil aviation ministry and the sector regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
Makemytrip.com said it has resolved the matter with Jet. "The issue stands resolved with 9W (Jet Airways). We will make correction in how we display opaque fares to ensure no airline is hurt," said Keyur Joshi, chief operating officer, makemytrip.com.
Director General of Civil Aviation EK Bharat Bhushan described the practice as "unfortunate" and added that this method of selling tickets is a cause for concern if it has caused discomfort to passengers.
"It is true the method is causing price distortions too. It is unfortunate." Other airlines are objecting to the practice and say it is wrong to have a non-transparent way of booking tickets if a transparent alternative exists.
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