Kolkattans have switched loyalties - they fly out during Christmas instead of Pujas

Kolkattans have switched loyalties. Instead of vacationing abroad during the Pujas, they are opting for Christmas which has taken over from the Pujas as the biggest holiday season of the year. This observation is based on the flight bookings in the run-up to New Year.
This has been reported in telegraphindia.com dated 28 December 2015.

While the Pujas is supposed to be a traditional tourist season, the general response over the past couple of years have been damp. Instead, the winter holiday season has taken the place of the Pujas. Previously, most of the outbound flights on all sectors had many empty seats in December - that has changed.
Right now, most international flights out of Calcutta have no seats left till December 30, including business class. Industry insiders have attributed this rush during the Christmas-New Year season to longer school holidays apart from a prolonged spell of political peace in Thailand which is a much sought-after holiday destination.
A Thai Airways flight has 39 business class and 254 economy class seats and, till December 30, there are no seats in both classes on Bangkok-bound flights.
In response to the rush, Qatar Airways is believed to be flying a bigger aircraft with 110 additional seats on the Calcutta-Doha route.
Incidentally, the Kolkata market continues to rely on seasonal and leisure traffic on international routes and round-the-year demand for premium seats still eludes the market.

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