Cheap airfares resurface to woo travellers back from railways

Mumbai: Airlines are trying to woo passengers back to the skies by offering cheaper fares, special incentives, advance booking plans and frequent flyer benefits to arrest a 19% slide in the number of air travellers last month from a year earlier.
Carriers such as SpiceJet Ltd, GoAirlines (India) Pvt. Ltd that operates GoAir, and IndiGo, run by Interglobe Aviation Pvt. Ltd, have knocked off a Rs150 congestion surcharge imposed on each ticket.
State-owned National Aviation Co. of India Ltd, or Nacil, which runs Air India, never imposed the congestion surcharge, but others including Kingfisher Airlines Ltd and Jet Airways (India) Ltd continue to load this on every ticket.
The airline firms are also going back to permitting bookings as much as six months in advance, dropping the current practice of limiting ticket purchases to three months before the travel date.
After reducing fares by 15% across the board, Delhi-based low-fare carrier SpiceJet on Tuesday reintroduced its Rs99 fare (excluding taxes and surcharges) on some sectors, keeping bookings open into March next year. The airline has also announced an all-inclusive Rs3,225 ticket on the Mumbai-Delhi sector compared with tickets priced between Rs5,000 and Rs6,000 earlier.
The Wadia Group-promoted GoAir has decided to offer every single flyer on the airline a Rs200 voucher with each boarding pass, which can be redeemed on the next ticket purchased within three months. Under a “fly smart” programme, the Mumbai-based carrier has offered a free base-fare ticket against the purchase of the fifth consecutive ticket bought online from now to March.
21/10/08 P.R. Sanjai/Livemint

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General Oct 2008