If you thought the Jet-Sahara acquisition deal would end the fare wars in the Indian aviation space, ticket prices have only slipped further.
MUMBAI: If you thought the Jet-Sahara acquisition deal would end the fare wars in the Indian aviation space, here’s some news for you. Far from moving up, ticket prices have only slipped further as airlines flood the market with promotional schemes.
Cut-price schemes continue to flow into the market unabated, and flyers have never had it so good before. Just a week after budget carrier Air Deccan opened bookings of one lakh tickets at Rs 999 (inclusive of taxes) for travel between February 20 and April 10, full-service carrier Jet Airways also discounted one lakh tickets by 30-50% on flights across 74 sectors for the same period.
A week later, Jet extended its ‘mega sale’ to another 1.5 lakh tickets, and this time, Air Deccan followed by extending its ‘mega sale’ to 50,000 more tickets. Stated reason: tremendous response from customers. Translated, it means that in an intensely competitive market, low fares are major stimulators of the market.
Industry experts say that as airlines expand their networks and capacity on various routes, promotional fares are filling up aircraft. “These fares are helping airlines to improve flight load factors during non-peak hours of the day and on sectors where the air traffic has dipped because the season is over,” says Ikson Menezes of SGL Tours and Travels.
Menezes has seen bookings on Goa flights fall drastically after the festive season, but this time, with airlines doling out lollies, he has seen bookings on many routes pick up quickly.
Travel agents say Go Air’s 10,000 free tickets have attracted flyers to the airline despite its reputation of being slightly unreliable due to small fleet size. They feel this could be the reason why the carrier has kept the scheme going even four months after its launch. “We were expecting Go to withdraw the scheme after a month, but it must be continuing it because it is quite popular,” say a travel agent.
While Jet, Air Deccan and Go are whipping up volumes through direct fare cuts, Kingfisher Air is indirectly discounting its fares through auctions. Flyers can bring down their fares by as much as 40% by bidding for auction fares online.
“We offer around 3-5% of our inventory for sale through the auction route. It is very popular among all sections of our passengers,” says Kingfisher Airlines general manager Manoj Chacko.
And, as airlines chase passengers, India’s aviation market is registering unprecedented growth. SpiceJet Ltd chairman Siddhanta Sharma says air traffic during this fiscal has already shot up by 30%. “Until now over 24 million passengers have flown by air as against 18 million last fiscal,” says Sharma.
Not only has the market bloated, even individual carriers are breaking previous records. On February 15, Jet set a new record in the Indian civil aviation industry by flying 36,406 passengers with a seat factor of 86%. And analysts believe that this fare bonanza is not about to fizzle quickly.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}