The association pointed out that the Air Suvidha form requirement was causing a lot of inconvenience to travellers, especially inbound tourists who were missing their flights to India
The Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI) has asked the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) to stop the mandatory requirement of filling out the Air Suvidha form online, reported ETTravelWorld.
FHRAI made a representation to Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia after it came to known about the problems faced by fliers who had booked hotels in the country. The association pointed out that the Air Suvidha form requirement was causing a lot of inconvenience to travellers, especially inbound tourists who were missing their flights to India.
The association has asked the Ministry to at least include a provision of physical forms as an alternate to the online forms.
“Quite a few of the travellers were completely unaware of the requirement until they arrived at the check-in. Travellers also complained about the tediousness of filling out the online form with difficulties faced in navigating the site and in uploading documents. We back the government’s initiative for ensuring the safety of passengers flying to the country. However, sometimes guests miss the flights due to being unable to submit the form in time, and eventually, they have to cancel hotel room booking. There are many other near-miss instances.
FHRAI also mentioned that the paucity of time, confusion, and difficulty in filling the form was creating chaos at airports and hampering arrivals to the country. A lot of inbound travellers have also voiced out about being unaware of this mandatory requirement and getting to know about it while at the check-in counter
Since many travellers book flights through third-party online sites or apps which do not inform about this requirement, passengers get caught off-guard. This in itself causes confusion and then filling out the online form which is not as easy to navigate while hoping to not miss the flight makes it an even more chaotic process. In the interest of our guests as well as for anyone travelling to India, we request that the Government either immediately withdraws the mandatory Air Suvidha form filling or at least provision physical forms as an alternate,” said Gurbaxish Singh Kohli, Vice President, FHRAI, reported ETTravelWorld.
FHRAI also mentioned that the paucity of time, confusion, and difficulty in filling the form was creating chaos at airports and hampering arrivals to the country. A lot of inbound travellers have also voiced out about being unaware of this mandatory requirement and getting to know about it while at the check-in counter.
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