NEW DELHI: People appeared cautious while planning their journey through domestic commercial flights, bookings for which opened on Friday.
Tickets on most of the routes were available and airfares were found lower than the mid-point between lowest and highest fare.
On the Delhi-Mumbai route, tickets were available in the range of Rs 6,000-Rs 6,500 for flying on May 25, the first day of the resumption of domestic flights.
The lower band in this sector is Rs 3,500 and the upper limit is Rs 10,000.
Travel aggregator site Yatra.com said it had received an overwhelming response on nearly all metro routes due to the pent up demand by those who want to go back home.
“Bookings today are trending at almost 40% of pre-COVID levels. With the government capping airfares, we anticipate the bookings to increase further in the near future,” said Dhruv Shringi, co-founder and CEO of the Yatra portal.
All airlines except GoAir have opened bookings for one-third of their domestic flights.
Airline operators geared up for Covid-19 protection like providing face shields and gowns to cabin crew and deep cleaning of aircraft.
IndiGo CEO Ronojoy Dutta said all common surfaces such as baggage drop counters, boarding gates, coaches, ramps etc. will be thoroughly disinfected.
AirAsia India said pilots will have access to ample masks and sanitisers.