Rajdhani ticket unconfirmed? Don't worry; you could soon opt to fly with Air India instead

Don't we all understand the pain of an unconfirmed train ticket? Have we not all spent a month tediously planning for that pending reunion, only to find that the tickets never got confirmed? This could, however, soon change. A report in Times of India mentioned that passengers with unconfirmed AC-I or AC-II tickets for the Rajdhani Express could soon opt to fly with Air India instead, after paying the price difference, in case there is any.

AC-II fares for Rajdhani Express are more or less similar to air fares. Unless passengers book the tickets much in advance, it is extremely difficult to get a ticket for Rajdhani trains. A lot of passengers pin their hopes on getting the tickets on Tatkal or premium Tatkal, which costs a lot or than a normal ticket. If the Railways implements the plan to offer Air India flight tickets to Rajdhani waiting list passengers, it could solve the issue of low occupancy in Air India as well as of high demand for Rajdhani tickets.

The current Chairman of the Railway Board, Ashwani Lohani, came up with the ticket-switch plan last summer when he was the Chairman of Air India. However, the railways had not reacted in a positive manner, the report mentions. Now that he is heading the Railway Board, he says that the railways would accept this proposal if Air India approaches them with this.

Lohani was appointed the chairman of the Railway Board on August 23 after the incumbent A K Mital resigned from the position.

Lohani's plan mentioned that contact details of people whose tickets remain unconfirmed could be shared with Air India, who could then offer them seats on flights for the same destination, with competitive prices. When Lohani initially came up with the idea, Air India had also decided to match fares with AC-II for important metro routes, such as Delhi-Mumbai.

However, it remains to be seen if Lohani's plan can can be implemented as Air India has its debt troubles. The government has been planning for disinvestment of the airline.  In fact, this year in June, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs gave its in-principle nod for the strategic disinvestment of the airline which has a debt burden of more than Rs 50,000 crore.