IRCTC to launch website for booking air tickets online

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Air travellers can also make use of IRCTC to book their air tickets online, as the railway PSU is slated to launch a dedicated website shortly offering a 'lenient' cancellation policy with no service charge.

"The website - air.irctc.co.in - is slated to be launched shortly," said an IRCTC official, adding the site will provide 'live best rates' of all major airlines for booking.

IRCTC which has one of the largest e-commerce capabilities in Asia Pacific, books around 3.65 lakhs of railway tickets every day, which is roughly 45 per cent of the total reserved tickets of Indian Railways.

IRCTC is looking at 10 per cent market share in the first 6 months in the airline ticket booking space, the official said.

There are around 1,50,000 airline seats available daily out of which around 40-50 per cent or 70,000-75,000 seats are sold online, he said.

He said IRCTC is already in talks with certain banks under which passengers, who use their credit cards, will get a cash back offer.

"While other online travel agencies charge around Rs 500 - 750 on cancellation of tickets, ours will be much less," he said.

The other unique aspect of the website is that there will be no service charge levied by IRCTC unlike other travel agencies and there would be a quick refund process.