With Mallya in Deccan, cheap fares to be passe

Mumbai: With the King of the good times taking over the common man's airline, the volatile equations in the country's low-cost airline industry are slated to change forever. "Though Air Deccan will not merge with Kingfisher Airlines, it's a foregone conclusion that the market will henceforth not be flooded with lakhs of Rs 0 tickets," said an airline official, adding that the Kingfisher-Deccan deal had infact brought much relief to the other players in the industry.
"When a competitor acts suicidal and releases Rs 0 tickets in lakhs every week other low-cost airlines are under pressure to follow the suit. Towards May end, Spice Jet released 2 lakh tickets worth 99 paise each," he said adding, that this additional burden had to be borne despite the fact that airlines on an average in India were losing $ 10 to $15 (Rs 410 to Rs 615) per passenger, per flight.
Around the same time, Go Air announced tickets for Rs 525 for travel from July to October on the Mumbai-Delhi route. "This route really does not have an offseason for travel, yet there are these fares this year. Tickets on other routes like Mumbai-Ahmedabad on which traffic is low during offseason are going for Rs 95," said an airline sales official.
01/06/07 Manju V/Times of India

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Categories: Air Deccan Jun 2007, Kingfisher Jun 2007