Singapore Airlines flies into price war

Mumbai: Low airfares are back and so is competition. The cash rich Singapore Airlines is offering discount deals of up to 60%, connecting Mumbai with various South-East Asian cities.
A Mumbai-Singapore return fare is now available for just Rs 16,830, including taxes, whereas Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur return fares are Rs 23,980 per ticket. The Sydney, Melbourne and Perth return fares from Mumbai are Rs 41,350 only. “Attractive prices to popular leisure destinations will allow more customers to travel these places,” said Singapore Airlines general manager CW Foo.
Interestingly, these fare cuts are coming at a time when Vijay Mallya’s Kingfisher Airlines is launching its daily non-stop Mumbai-London flight from Monday. Singapore Airlines, which started operations from Chennai in 1970, operates 56 weekly flights to Singapore from eight Indian cities. It has double daily flights from Mumbai and Delhi, apart from flights from Chennai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad. Its subsidiary airline SilkAir operates daily flights from Kochi, four flights from Thiruvananthapuram and thrice weekly from Coimbatore.
On the other hand, Jet Airways has announced offerings for international travellers last week.
Kingfisher Airlines flight to London has almost full occupancy, said a spokesperson. The Mumbai-London flight will be Kingfisher’s second overseas route after the Bangalore-London flight, launched in September last year.
Kingfisher Airlines will also be competing with the National Aviation Co. of India Ltd-run Air India, Jet Airways and several international carriers.
International passenger traffic fell by 4.5% in November. The International Air Transport Association, which represents airlines operating 93% of cross-border flights, has forecast that 2009 will be worse than 2008 in terms of the number of passengers and yields.
06/01/09 Mithun Roy/Economic Times

To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline

Categories: Foreign Jan 2009, Indian Aviation- In General Jan 2009