IndiGo crisis continues as Bengaluru tour operators fear future problems
Bengaluru: Nearly a week after IndiGo began cancelling the flights, travel agencies and tour operators in Bengaluru say they are still struggling and are unsure how long the situation will continue.
According to a report published by Deccan Herald on Tuesday, some operators said the past few days have been filled with frustrated calls from customers, as they repeatedly rebooking/rescheduling tickets.
Karthik, manager of Nesara Tours LLP, reportedly said for his company, the scale of disruption caused by the crisis has been unprecedented. In the last week, more than 20 flights that we booked were cancelled.
“Some of our customers who were supposed to return to the city on Friday, were stranded after their flight was cancelled. They only managed to get back two days later, that too after we booked them on a different flight,” DH quoted Karthik as saying.
He said that although IndiGo had rescheduled their flight for Tuesday, it wasn’t confirmed
What frustrated agents and passengers is that in most cases of flight cancellations, passengers or operators had to pay for accommodations and other arrangements from their own pockets.
Karthik reportedly said, Bengaluru to Delhi was earlier Rs 9,000–10,000. Now it is Rs 20,000–25,000 on other flights. It is not easy to rebook customers as they have to pay extra.
Another operator, Suhas from Evergreen Tours, reportedly said IndiGo’s customer support has been almost unreachable. He said that they will continue to temporarily pacify their clients by reassuring them that things will be resolved soon as they fear they might lose business.
This week, they were “thankfully” spared major trouble as they had few IndiGo bookings. But the relief, he admits, is temporary. “We have already booked for December-end and January.” “There is anxiety because if this is not rectified, and if it recurs later, it will badly affect us. Entire trips will be cancelled,” DH quoted Shamant, proprietor of Sanman Travels as saying.
As per the report, unlike agencies that only book tickets, Shamant’s firm handles full travel packages including hotels, transport and logistics. If even one flight gets cancelled, the whole plan collapses. We are definitely worried about future bookings, he said.
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Stalin accuses Centre of trying to use women's quota as 'weapon,' slams EPS over delimitation
Chennai (PTI): Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin has strongly criticised the Centre over the women's reservation and accused it of trying to use it as a "weapon" to tackle the opposition before taking up the delimitation exercise based on population.
"The Union government is not concerned about implementing reservations for women. If their concerns were genuine, they could have done it right away. Rather than doing that, the BJP-led Centre is thinking of using it as a weapon to tackle opposition and take up the delimitation exercise based on population," he told PTI in an interview.
"Hence, the women's reservation must be implemented immediately without showing delimitation as a reason," the DMK president added.
Expressing apprehensions on the proposed delimitation exercise, the CM said it was the DMK that raised the first voice asserting the rights of the state after realising that Tamil Nadu would be affected by the proposed exercise. He also attacked his rival and AIADMK chief Edappadi K Palaniswami over the delimitation issue.
Recalling efforts made by the DMK to raise the issue of population-based delimitation, he said an all-party meeting and a meeting of CMs under the auspices of the Joint Action Committee seeking fair delimitation were convened. It sought to freeze delimitation for 25 years and stick to it based on the 1971 Census population.
"We urged the union government that states which successfully implemented population control programmes must not be punished," he added.
The party came up with "Tamil Nadu poradum, Tamil Nadu vellum" (Tamil Nadu will struggle, Tamil Nadu will win) and this is DMK's stand, he said.
"However, Palaniswami, who is seeking votes for the entry of the BJP through the backdoor, has till date been mute over delimitation, and this is a betrayal of the people of Tamil Nadu."
