A day after Air India opened booking for select destinations in the USA, Canada, the UK and Europe under the phase three of Vande Bharat mission, Air India (AI) on Saturday said that it has sold over 22,000 seats in 15 hours of opening bookings under Vande Bharat Mission-III. AI also informed that more seats to new destinations will be added in due course under the mission.
“Sale of tickets commenced at 5 p.m. Friday for select destinations in the USA, Canada, United Kingdom & Europe under Phase-3 of #VBM. Our website saw exceptionally high traffic without 60 million hits at peak & over 22,000 seats have been sold overall till 8 a.m now in a transparent manner. Heavy rush however slowed the website at times. More seats to more destinations will be added in due course,” the AI tweeted.
The maximum demand is for flights to the US, with connection to San Francisco and Chicago being the most sought after there. As per schedule, AI will be operating 75 flights from India to select destinations in USA and Canada from June 9 to June 30.
People faced a difficult time due to huge demand as tickets are being sold on only AI channels. Passengers wonder why did AI not sell its inventory through online travel agents.
Several Twitter users then pointed out that the Air India website was down and the ticket purchase was not going through.
AI will operate 300 flights to North America, Canada and Europe from June 9 to June 30, 2020 under the third phase of Vande Bharat Mission.
AI has in Phase I operated 64 flights and evacuated 12,708 Indians.
In phase 2, till date 290 flights and 52,113 Indians have been brought home.