After news reports revealed that airlines were charging excessively for flights that were touching down or taking off from airports close to flood hit Chennai, private flyer Jet Airways on Thursday released a statement on Twitter saying that they were not responsible for the inflated flight fares.
In its statement Jet Airways said that the hiked costs were engineered by third-party travel websites by creating stop over trips combining indirect routes or showing premiere cabin seats.
Jet Airways said: “In the last few days Jet Airways employees in Chennai have worked tirelessly to connect our guests with their families by rerouting them from nearby airports such as Bengaluru at no extra charge. Most direct Jet Airways flights between Bangalore and Mumbai/Delhi have been sold out. Some fares seen on third party online travel portals are constructed by those websites by combining the last available Premiere cabin seats on indirect routes with stopovers to create a roundabout itinerary. Jet Airways guests with confirmed tickets to and from Chennai till December 15, 2016 will be allowed full refund of tickets or complimentary change of booking to alternate date.”
The airline also announced that it will either refund money without the standard deductions or give complimentary tickets for its flights booked to or from Chennai until December 15.
Going by the present condition and weather forecasts, the Airports Authority of India had previously announced that Chennai airport was to be closed until December 6 and Rajali Naval Air Station in Arakkonam would be the temporary airport for evacuation purposes at fixed rates. However, as situation improved air services resumed on Saturday morning.
Jet Airways and cash-strapped Air India were accused of inflating their ticket prices given the situation.
An Indian Express report quoted Iqbal Mulla, president of Global Tourism Council in Mumbai saying, “Some airlines have doubled air fares for flights to cities such as Bangalore, Hyderabad and Coimbatore, which are not very far from Chennai.”
While the same report quoted a Delhi-based travel agent as saying, “Air fares are so dynamic that it is difficult to read a pattern in them. At one particular time they may go up, but at another time they may hit rock bottom on a particular sector.”