Jaisalmer trade unites

The travel trade in Jaisalmer has come together to reinstate SpiceJet flights to The Golden City.

Nisha Verma

SpiceJet flights to The Golden City, Jaisalmer, were withdrawn because the route was incurring losses, which eventually were underwritten by the travel and hospitality fraternity in the city along with small traders who are giving a ‘Minimum Seat Guarantee’ to the airline by contributing to a pool for a ‘Viability Gap Funding’, which would allow the airline to operate on the route in a sustainable manner. This drive was set in motion by Manvendra Singh Shekhawat, MD, Suryagarh and Founder, I Love Jaisalmer, with the support of Ritika Modi, Regional President, UNIGLOBE Travel, South Asia, to reach out to Shilpa Bhatia, Chief Commercial Officer, SpiceJet.

“Right from big and small hotels, tour operators, transport operators and guides to airlines, everybody is part of the same ecosystem, and even one amongst these not working would affect every other element,” says Modi.

For Shekhawat, it started with a phone call he received on his visit to Jaipur from a travel fraternity member in Jaisalmer, telling him about the flights being stopped from January 28. “I reached out to the Rajasthan Governor and presented the case to him. It happened because SpiceJet was bearing losses and the flights were not successful. Hence, we thought, since everyone benefitted from the flights, why not share the losses of SpiceJet, which will give them greater confidence of operating the flight. I wrote to every stakeholder possible, suggesting this plan, and that if we did a few things, this plan could work.” It was then that he called Modi. “I asked her to connect me with someone in SpiceJet’s senior management, and she introduced me to Shilpa Bhatia,” adds Shekhawat.

Modi shares, “We had a Zoom meeting with her and we explained how their losses can be compensated by the travel and hospitality professionals who pooled in together.”

Shekhawat explains, “I asked them about their losses and they gave me a number. We proposed to reduce the frequency of flights and start the flights so that we have maximum load factors. Then, we carefully observed the data of how the airline was performing in December till January 24. Then we drafted a letter to be sent to District Collectors and other members of the tourism industry. This way, everyone in the fraternity came on a platform and we all said that if the airline would make a revised schedule, we will underwrite the losses.”

Within two days, they met with the SpiceJet team and negotiated a deal. “We contributed money to a common pool of funds under the District Administration, funded the bank guarantees, and got the flights reinstated. Now, the flights have started from February 12,” Shekhawat says. “We created videos to share with the travel fraternity, asking them to support us by sending tourists to Jaisalmer. It is the first-of-its-kind citizen-airline partnership where citizens are underwriting the potential losses of an airline in order to encourage the airline to continue operations,” he says. Modi adds, “All our UNIGLOBE travel agents have been asked to start making packages for Jaisalmer, and we will be promoting it.”