Railways’ loss is airlines’ gain

Patna: With the railways facing the wrath of anti-MNS protesters in the state, airlines are doing brisk business. Most of the flights operating
between Patna and other cities are booked to capacity.
According to sources, while the occupancy rate in the Jet Airways late evening Patna-Delhi flight was less than 50 per cent in the last one month, it has gone up significantly following the anti-MNS agitation. It was, in fact, cent per cent on Thursday and by Friday afternoon, around 85 per cent of booked had been done.
“We are expecting full booking by evening as people are still enquiring about the availability of seats in different categories,” said a Jet official. “Over 70 per cent of seats on Saturday’s flight have already been booked,” he added.
JetLite flights to Mumbai and Kolkata have done brisk business and their occupancy rate is above normal if one takes into account bookings made till Friday, a JetLite official said.
“Passengers are even willing to pay over Rs 7,000 to book a seat on the Kolkata flight. In normal times, the ticket prices float between Rs 4,000 and Rs 5,000,” he added.
In case of Kingfisher Red, the Delhi flight is booked to capacity till Friday and there is a heavy rush on the Patna-Kolkata route with ticket rates hovering around Rs 7,000.
Air India too is making good money. “Both the flights to Delhi were fully booked in the last two days and it was the same on Friday as well,” said C Balasanmugam, Air India station manager.
While ticket rates in the economy class vary between Rs 5,800 and Rs 12,135, the ticket rate in the executive class is Rs 16,000.
25/10/08 Sanjeev Kumar Verma/Times of India

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General Oct 2008