Bookings for the following three days have seen a similar trend, prompting the operating company to suspend online reservations on its website. While officials insisted they had received “an adequate number of passengers,” sources said the halt was triggered by an unusually low turnout. With only one or two travellers attempting to book seats, reservations are now being handled manually by ground staff for groups of five to six.
Queries on the suspension led to a round of internal referrals. A company representative attributed the issue to the IT team, which then directed questions back to ground personnel. Staff at the helipad confirmed they were updating booking details directly for passengers who contacted them.
A key concern emerging among potential travellers is the operator’s passenger-weight policy. Flyers weighing over 80 kg must pay an additional ₹150 per kilogram, while those above 100 kg are required to purchase two seats. This pushes the fare for a 90 kg passenger on the Indore–Ujjain sector from ₹5,000 to ₹6,500, and over ₹10,000 for a passenger exceeding 100 kg.
The pricing structure has drawn comparisons with far cheaper road and rail options. Travel analysts had earlier cautioned that aviation services on the short corridor could struggle to compete, pointing to the shutdown of a similar Air Taxi service last year due to poor ridership.
Company officials maintain that empty seats are common in the early phase of new operations and expect numbers to improve as awareness grows. The Madhya Pradesh Tourism Department is planning additional promotion and potential route expansions to boost demand in the coming weeks.
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