Air India cuts domestic fares by up to 82%

Mumbai: The state-owned carrier Air India has cut fares by up to 82% in 20 sectors on Tuesday, mostly on metro routes, following a dip in aviation turbine fuel (ATF) prices. ”The airline is cutting basic fares by 35-82% on domestic sectors,” said a spokesperson of National Aviation Corporation of India (Nacil), which controls Air India.
Jet Airways’ subsidiary, JetLite, too reduced basic fares on all its domestic flights with immediate effect. These fares will now be lower by up to 40%, Jet Airways said in a statement on Tuesday. A Mumbai-Delhi economy class basic fare will now be available for as low as Rs 750; the Mumbai-Chennai basic fare is at Rs 595; Ahmedabad-Goa is at Rs 245, while the Delhi-Hyderabad fare at Rs 999, without taxes.
On Sunday, Kingfisher Airlines chairman Vijay Mallya promised to slash fares from January 1. While he did not mention the exact percentage, experts believe it could be in the 10-15% range, which means fares could drop by Rs 500 to Rs 1,000. Jet Airways had already cut its basic fares by 15-40% with effect from Monday.
Meanwhile, budget airlines — SpiceJet and IndiGo — are likely to trim fares by 8-10% from mid-January. SpiceJet director Ajay Singh confirmed it to ET, but declined to divulge exact cuts. He said the cut will be ”substantial” across sectors. ”An announcement is expected shortly,” he added.
While some carriers earlier this month had reduced the fuel surcharge on the ticket price by Rs 200 to Rs 400, they did not touch the basic fare. Airlines had introduced fuel surcharge of Rs 200 in November 2005 when ATF was ruling at Rs 35,761 per kilo litre.
31/12/08 Economic Times

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General Dec 2008, NACIL Dec 2008