The Crime Branch, Jammu, and Kashmir Police have finally registered a case against the ticketing agents and airlines conducting business in Jammu and Kashmir for charging exorbitant rates for the flight tickets. The crime branch registered the case after receiving a formal complaint from multiple travel associations and trade bodies through Director Tourism Kashmir pertaining to the alleged sale of air tickets at a very high price.

The associations also accused the airline staff of creating a nexus with travel agents. Now the crime branch of Jammu and Kashmir police has registered a case under section 420, 468, 471, 409 r/w Section 120-B IPC.

Air India Airbus A320 passenger aircraft.
An Air India Airbus A320 passenger aircraft.(Representational Image)Reuters

Action was taken after the inquiry

After receiving the complaints, crime branch swung into action and found out that the officials of various airlines sell group tickets in large number, in business terms, it is called as 'bulk booking', to the travel agents in the entire region.

Notably, these bulk bookings were made in the name of passengers who were not a member of any group. The tickets are being further sold by these agents individually to a single passenger in the black market and airline staff accept the individual as group tickets passengers as group members at the time of check-in which is a clear violation of terms and conditions of airlines for group booking.

Moreover, after the tickets are being sold in bulk initially creates an artificial shortage for the passengers willing to book tickets directly on the website of the respective airlines which eventually inflates the prices of these tickets due to dynamic pricing.

The practice also discourages the general public to book tickets on their own and force them to pay a higher price to get tickets through travel agents.

The fraudulent criminal conspiracy hatched by the travel agents along with airline officials is not only cheating the genuine passengers but also affecting the government revenues due to tax evasion.