Jet Airways and IndiGo pull out inventory from Makemytrip.com

If you are planning a trip to India and use Makemytrip.com to book your travel, be warned. Jet Airways and IndiGo which among themselves fly nearly 50% of domestic traffic in India have pulled out their inventory from the travel site Makemytrip.com protesting the so called ‘opaque fare’ scheme the site was running.

To give a brief background about the ‘opaque scheme’ the travel sites in India which were stuck with the loads of the ailing Kingfisher Airlines tickets offered heavily discounted air tickets without disclosing the airline name until the payment was made. However, the country’s aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) directed all airlines to immediately withdraw participation from such schemes through a directive on March 28, 2012 as they do not present a complete picture for the passenger and is highly misleading.

The scheme led to much anguish among passengers who were given tickets of Kingfisher flights which later got cancelled without any advance warning. What needs to be seen now is as to how long this pullout of inventory continues and what will happen to the state of Kingfisher whose only method for survival is under threat due to this given that it has already lost its IATA membership and has been trying to fill whatever planes its running through these cheap fare offers. In the end lets hope it leads to a better solution where passengers get a good deal with airlines making a decent profit so as to help them stay afloat.