Passengers continue to suffer on Day 2 of AI strike

On Thursday,a few passengers were stranded at the airport,over 40 hours after the pilots’ body issued the strike call. Dr Iqbal Ahmed,director of the Maulana Azad National Urdu University,had travelled to Mumbai from Hyderabad to attend an event in Aurangabad. His flight to Aurangabad was cancelled,leaving him with no option but to take the road. “They tried to accommodate us on other airlines,which said there was no flight available today. We can’t wait for a day here,so we decided to take a cab,” he said.

Some passengers paid a premium fare on other airlines. Although the airline was transferring many passengers to other airlines,they had to purchase their own tickets. Passengers like Narayan Sheshadri ended up paying more than Rs 7,000 for a ticket after his AI ticket,booked well in advance,was cancelled. “We got full refunds,but the new fare is almost double of what I paid on AI,” he said.

Fares are expected to rise as other airlines continue to absorb passengers from AI,leading to a hike in demand for other carriers. AI’s domestic market share is around 15 per cent. “This has been an unexpected bonanza for other airlines and unfortunate for AI as this is the peak summer rush season,” said Amber Dubey,director (aviation),KPMG.

“Flights on other airlines will go at a much higher fare. We booked around 10 passengers with AI tickets on other airlines. They do not want to take a chance,” said Jay Bhatia,chairperson of Travel Agents Association of India (western region).