Sales of airlines, travel companies spike on the first long-weekend of 2015

MUMBAI: Airlines and travel companies have seen a major rise in sales during the year's first long weekend starting this Saturday.

Monday is a national holiday because of Republic Day celebrations in the country.

"We are witnessing a huge spike in both planned and impulse flight bookings for the first long-weekend of the year. With a 165 per cent year-on-year growth in bookings for the period Jan 23rd – Jan 27th, we expect more last-minute bookings in this week," said Ranjeet Oak, Senior Vice President-Flights, MakeMyTrip.

"For the upcoming Republic Day long weekend our sales teams have reported a delightful 23 per cent uptake in queries (for international travel) and we certainly expect an increase by another 12 per cent," Oak said.

The spike in bookings is good news for the travel industry which is ready to face the blues of a lean travel season from now till April. The spurt, experts say will help offset the lagging sales this quarter.

Jet Airways and its partner Etihad Airways has used this weekend to announce a 25 per cent discount on tickets on their flights. The offer is applicable to the economy class in Jet's domestic flights, economy and business classes in international flights operated by Jet and Etihad.

Passengers can book between Jan 24 -26. Travel dates for domestic discounts are between March 1 till September 30 and for international from February 1 onwards.

Travel companies have said customers are keen on exploring detinations other than the usual popular ones such as Goa.

"This time, keen holiday planners are exploring interesting and offbeat destinations for the Republic Day weekend. On Cleartrip, we are seeing places like Pondicherry, Puri and Gangtok debut amongst the Top 10 destinations that Indians are visiting this January. Though, cities like Goa and Jaipur continue to be amongst the favourites. Advance purchase for this weekend has spiralled too.

At Cleartrip, over 82 per cent people booked their travel for the Republic Day Long Weekend, over 30-days in advance. Interestingly, over 25 per cent of these bookings, were made on Cleartrip Mobile.” said Samyukth Sridharan,president and COO of Cleartrip.com.