Domestic holiday season air ticket sales may see tepid growth

Airline ticket sales for domestic travel during the forthcoming holiday season are likely to see tepid growth this year, due to subdued consumer demand, according to industry experts. Online travel aggregators (OTA) have already observed flat growth in volumes of domestic ticket sales during the Diwali period.

Online booking portal Cleartrip has seen slowdown in the volume growth of advance bookings for Diwali. In 2019, the OTA’s 60-day advance booking volumes for Diwali were up 15% from a year ago, while in 2018, volumes for 60-day advance bookings were 22% higher than in 2017, said Balu Ramachandran, senior vice-president, Cleartrip. “This year, the (60-day) advance purchase pricing has been significantly more expensive than the closing pricing (of 15 days leading up to Diwali). The advance pricing for Diwali period has also been significantly higher, than that of a year ago… this could have impacted volumes,” Ramachandran said. The 60-day advance air fares increased by 15% for Diwali this year, compared with 2018, while prices had risen by 6% last year compared with 2017, Ramachandran said.