Fares plunge on India sector

Doha: Airfares to the subcontinent, traditionally one of the most expensive destinations, have dropped to unprecedented levels following a free for all among airlines.
Prices started sliding covertly after the peak season ended in late July but the sudden plunge began this month and has resulted in an open price war in the last few days.
The crash is so severe on certain routes that fares are less than 150% from the tariff of this time last year and 500% down from the peak fares of five years ago, industry sources told Gulf Times.
The current fare to Kochi in Kerala, for instance, is just QR880 for a round trip as against QR2,340 this time last year, travel agents said.
The main difference now, according to Naushad M E, travel manager of Regency Travel and Tours, was that the fares were not only low but they were also available in the system.
Huge drops were also available to most other destinations in India like Mumbai, Kozhikode, Chennai and Hyderabad.
The stiffer competition among airlines to sectors like Cochin had meant that the fare to that destination was now lower than to Mumbai, Naushad said.
For instance, the current Mumbai fares were QR990 for a return trip and QR700 for a single journey – QR110 more than the Cochin fares for the round trip. This was happening for the first time in the history of civil aviation.
In the past, even when Mumbai fares dropped, Kerala tariff held up because of the huge demand for seats from the huge Kerala population in Qatar and other Gulf countries.
Even more ironical is the fact that currently it is more expensive to fly to Dubai than to go to Mumbai. A seven-day weekend fare to Dubai, Naushad said, was QR1,220, including taxes. Service fee is extra.
According to industry sources, all airlines traditionally used the Gulf-Indian sector to make up for the losses they incurred in other sectors.
This eventually led to airlines scrambling for traffic rights to Cochin and Kozhikode and this year the supply of seats increased substantially.
14/08/08 Arvind Nair/Gulf Times, Qatar

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Categories: Foreign Aug 2008, Indian Aviation- In General Aug 2008