New Delhi: Government-run Air India on Wednesday rejected the charge that it was driving air fares down by offering cheaper ticket prices for the last minute travel against the industry's practise of increasing them manifold.
"We are not driving down air fares. We are only filling empty seats by lowering last minute air fares to the level of AC-II class ticket prices of Rajdhani trains," Air India Chairman and Managing Director Ashwani Lohani told reporters on the sidelines of an event here.
In a move that check-mated its rivals like Jet Airways and Vistara on the pricing front, the national carrier had early this month announced dropping its last minute fares to the level of AC II tier ticket prices of Rajdhani trains to four key destinations from Delhi -- Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Mumbai, to begin with.
Later, it extended the offer on seven other routes, giving jitters to the private airlines, which jack up their last minute fares to astronomical sums.
The move, however, attracted criticism from the industry.
Lohani said that since only 2-3 per cent of the bookings are made in the last 6-7 hours of flight departure, the drop in fares for last minute travel instead of jacking them up was unlikely to have any adverse impact on yields.
27/07/16 PTI/Times of India
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"We are not driving down air fares. We are only filling empty seats by lowering last minute air fares to the level of AC-II class ticket prices of Rajdhani trains," Air India Chairman and Managing Director Ashwani Lohani told reporters on the sidelines of an event here.
In a move that check-mated its rivals like Jet Airways and Vistara on the pricing front, the national carrier had early this month announced dropping its last minute fares to the level of AC II tier ticket prices of Rajdhani trains to four key destinations from Delhi -- Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Mumbai, to begin with.
Later, it extended the offer on seven other routes, giving jitters to the private airlines, which jack up their last minute fares to astronomical sums.
The move, however, attracted criticism from the industry.
Lohani said that since only 2-3 per cent of the bookings are made in the last 6-7 hours of flight departure, the drop in fares for last minute travel instead of jacking them up was unlikely to have any adverse impact on yields.
27/07/16 PTI/Times of India
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