NEW DELHI: Much to the dismay of Indian carriers, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is mulling reducing the booking period for air tickets from 12 months earlier to six months.
The trigger for this comes after the DGCA found that nearly 18 per cent of early bookings are cancelled. Most of these are non refundable tickets.
“When you have a four-month period to book tickets on Indian Railways, why should airlines allow booking air tickets 12 months ahead? People get trapped into this market tactics by airlines as they offer cheaper tickets for advance bookings for travel 10 or 12 months later,” said a Ministry of Civil Aviation official.
An industry official said 55 per cent of seats are books early, and reduction in the booking time slot will impact finances adversely.
A senior airline official said the government should let airlines take a call on ticket bookins as it is a commercial decision.
Airlines of most countries have a booking period of up to six months.