AirAsia India, SpiceJet make discount offers to spur ticket bookings

Domestic airlines AirAsia India and SpiceJet launched disco­unt schemes on Monday, offering tickets upwards of Rs 1,122. Bookings can be made between De­c­ember 27 and 31 and the discount is for tickets between Jan­uary 15 and April 15.

The move is ex­pe­cted to stimulate forward bookings amid the Omicron scare that has led to increased curbs across states. While travel dem­and in Dec­ember remains str­ong and airlines continue to see around 380,000 daily passeng­ers, forward bookings are looking weak. Additionally, airlines are offering waivers in date change and rescheduling fees to provide better travel flexibility to customers.

“We have not seen an impact in December but clearly Omicron is a dampener. With rising cases, people are in a wait-and-watch mode,” said a travel industry executive. Generally, airlines launch such offers for travel beginning February or March when demand gets weak, but this time around forwarding bookings are slow given Covid-19 uncertainties, he added.