Rains in Gujarat bring a windfall to airlines

Monsoon is considered a dull season for airliners with most of them operating at around 40 per cent of their capacity.

But this time around, heavy rain that caused disruption in the rail and road traffic, has brought in a windfall of business for the four airlines operating in the Ahmedabad-Mumbai sector.

All the seats in the sector have been booked and there are no tickets available in any of the four airlines. Indian Airlines, Jet Airways, Sahara Airlines and Air Deccan operate in this sector.

"The demand for air travel has increased in the last few days. All the airlines in the Ahmedabad-Mumbai sector are fully booked and we are unable to provide tickets to many of our customers," Anurag Mathur, manager, Travel Corporation (India) Pvt Ltd told Business Standard on Friday.

"Not just the economy class, but business and executive class have been booked fully," added Mathur.

All seats in the Jet Airways, which has four daily flights between Ahmedabad and Mumbai, have been booked till August 8. Sahara Airlines and Air Deccan, which operate two daily flights each in the sector, now offer only wait-listed tickets.

Similarly all seats in Indian Airlines, which operates four daily flights in the sector, have been booked till August 7 evening.

"Due to the closing of the railway and road routes between Ahmedabad and Mumbai, there has been a sudden increase in the air traffic in this sector. All our flights are fully booked. However, tickets will be available from Sunday evening as the train and road services were resumed from yesterday," said Bharat Tikle, area marketing manager, Indian Airlines.

Despite the heavy demand for tickets, none of the airlines have introduced any additional flights.