Customers queue up as GoAir website slows down

Starting this Sunday, the airline offered 1.7 mn tickets at fares upwards of Rs 1,469 onwards in a five-day sale offer

Passengers trying to book GoAir tickets in a promotional offer on Monday had a difficult time as the booking engine failed to load up.

On Sunday, the airline announced it would offer 1.7 million tickets at fares upwards of Rs 1,469 onwards in a five day sale offer. The tickets were for sale for travel between January-March..

The offer led to a jump in traffic to the GoAir site and it resulted in slowing down the website. While passengers were tempted to the site by prospect of cheaper tickets, most of the airline's fares were similar or in some instances higher than rival carriers. Also the Rs 1,469 fare was available only on certain short haul sectors, which upset consumers.

Responding to a query a GoAir spokesperson said: "We have been witnessing a 44 times increase in hits at our web site since we have launched the advertising campaign. This has undoubtedly created a significant slowdown in the of the website and we have already increased the bandwidth in order to meet the overwhelming requests from our customers.  Overall, in the first day of the promotion (Sunday) we have recorded an increase in booking for the fourth quarter of the year by almost 20%. This is a clear evidence of the appeal of our offer. We are presently working to improve further the performances of our web site.”