IN protest against an opaque fare scheme being offered by OTAs, IndiGo has withdrawn its seat inventory from MakeMyTrip.com, while Jet Airways has reduced its share drastically.
India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) instructed all airlines to stop selling their flights through such portals in a directive on March 28. Several OTAs have been offering heavily discounted tickets on their sites, revealing the carrier’s identity only after payment has been completed.
IndiGo posted an official statement this week, saying “the arbitrary display of fares and opaque pricing is anti-consumer and in violation of DGCA norms and directives”.
President, Aditya Ghosh, said: “We have raised this with MakeMyTrip on several occasions but unfortunately, there has been no resolution. We were, therefore, left with no choice. IndiGo can’t be seen supporting a blatant violation of the law and something that is apparently anti-consumer.”
In a separate statement, MakeMyTrip said it was committed to giving best value for money to customers.
A senior airline analyst who did not want to be named said the two airlines were exerting pressure on the OTAs to shelve all seats on pre-allocated Kingfisher Airlines flights, many of which have been axed due to the carrier’s financial troubles.
