International travel suffers due to Omicron but domestic market persists

Even though domestic air travel in India is experiencing a growth in demand, but flights to and from India are reducing in number amid the Omicron scare.

“We are witnessing a minor increase in cancellation for international flights towards the end of the year amid conversations about the new variant. However, domestic flight bookings continue to be on a healthy growth trajectory,” Prahlad Krishnamurti, Chief Business Officer of Cleartrip, told The Sunday Express.

“In 2022, the domestic flight trends are looking very strong compared to 2021. Metro destinations are on track to exceed 2021 numbers. Leisure destinations like Goa, Chandigarh, Jaipur are showing a very strong uptick compared to 2021 numbers,” he added.

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Rajnish Kumar, Co-founder & Group CPTO, ixigo, said, “Domestic travel appetite is still strong for the holiday season. We have seen a 10-15 per cent year-on-year surge in search queries for popular domestic leisure destinations for year-end travel including Goa, Jaipur, Srinagar and Udaipur.”

He also told that wedding-related travel demand has increased in November and December as destination wedding trend returns, adding, “With air quality worsening in metro cities like Delhi, we are also witnessing a trend of ‘escape tourism’ where an increasing level of pollution has tourists flocking to destinations like Goa.”

Meanwhile, international flights are not having a good time in the holiday season as there is a significant drop in bookings.

“We have seen a temporary dip of around 20 per cent (compared with the company’s expectations) in international bookings for now. Countries like the UK, France, US, Singapore are getting impacted due to the restrictions and concerns related to the new variant,” Rikant Pittie, co-founder, Easy Trip Planners, told the publication.

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Pittie noted that most of the international travel bookings were not cancelled but postponed.

Restrictions imposed by India as well as other countries affect international travel.

More than 6,000 flights have been cancelled worldwide over the long Christmas weekend and thousands more were delayed, Flightaware.com reported Sunday, as the highly infectious Omicron variant brings holiday hurt to millions.

On Friday, there were around 2,400 cancellations and 11,000 delays, while Sunday cancellations were at nearly 1,500 with more than 1,400 delays also reported.

“Thousands of people, especially NRIs, who came home last time around could not go back to the countries of their employment. They came to India and were stuck here because a country like Singapore or Saudi Arabia wouldn’t allow them to enter without rigorous quarantines. That is why international demand is running below what was originally expected for Christmas, New Year’s, and so on,” a senior executive with a domestic low-cost airline told the publication.

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