Low-cost carrier, no-cost food

Mumbai: The demarcating line between low-cost carriers and full-fare airlines may get blurred if Kingfisher Red's competitors, too, follow its decision to serve free hot and cold snacks on flights.
Low-cost carriers, too, have started issuing seat numbers on boarding passes following a directorate-general of civil aviation order. Now, if more low-cost carriers also get on the free-food bandwagon, there will be very little to help the flier differentiate between a low-cost carrier and a full-fare airline in terms of services, say aviation experts.
Kingfisher Red's decision to get the free-food trolley rolling again on flights seems to be an admission of the fact that what works on a Ryan Air flight in Europe may not work on a flight in India, the experts add.
Kingfisher Red, it seems, has decided to metamorphose into something between a full-service airline and a no-frills airline. It claims it will offer attractive fares like an LCC but will also serve free hot meals on board like a full-service airline. It's a new space that Kingfisher Red is looking forward to occupying.
It remains to be seen whether the shortest route to the Indian fliers' heart is through their stomach or the wallet but the move may redefine the idea of service in an industry where every new move to attract customers by one airline is copied by the rest of the lot. With free food, airline competition - which in this decade has been largely limited to providing attractive fares - will go retro.
18/09/08 Manju V/Times of India

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General Sep 2008, Low Cost General Sep 2008