Air India has barred local agents from booking tickets in the Canada sector.
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Price Gouging
The airline aims to punish those profiteering from the surging demand after two years of travel curbs.
It found that many local travel agents were blocking tickets in order to sell them at exorbitant prices.
An AI source familiar with the matter said that the agents were blocking seats at a certain price to sell them at four times the price they had blocked them for, causing losses to the airline.
In order to curb this practice, the airline has banned local agents in India from booking tickets for its Canada flights.
Exploiting Pent Up Demand
The government had announced that regular international flights will resume from March 27.
This is the first time flight operations are restarting since the ban 2 years ago.
Therefore there is huge demand for international travel which some are exploiting in order to make huge profits.
Passengers traveling to Canada can book tickets directly on the airline’s website.
The airline’s ban on travel agents will affect bookings to Canada around the peak summer travel season.
Discrimination?
President of Travel Agents Federation of India Ajay Prakash said that while overseas travel agents and those registered overseas can sell India-Canada tickets, it is the ones in India that are being discriminated against.
Also, the India-Canada route generates massive revenue for airlines and booking agents due to demand from VFR passengers and Indian students looking to study abroad.
Trust Building
Prakash said that the entire community is being punished for the mistakes of a select few.
The move can also be seen as an attempt by the airline to build trust with its passengers by including accountability and fairness in its values.
The impact of the move remains to be seen once regular flights resume from March 27.
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