Fare war on Dhaka-Kolkata air route

A fare war has now surfaced on the Dhaka-Kolkata route, as Indian carriers recently slashed fares drastically to secure a slice of the market, airline officials said yesterday.
In the last couple of days, three Indian carriers operating from Bangladesh reduced their fares for flights between Dhaka-Kolkata. Air India Express was the first to cut fare, followed by Jet Airways and the newest entrant Kingfisher Airlines.
Local carriers--Biman Bangladesh Airlines, GMG and United Airways -- are yet to respond to the price cuts by the Indian carriers and some said they are first observing the situation.
“We cut our fares to allure more travellers to our flights on the route. Our Dhaka-Delhi route has a 90 percent rate of occupancy, but it is quite low for our Dhaka-Kolkata route. I hope we will be able to attract more travellers after the reduction in fares,” said Sudhakar Rao, general manager of Jet Airways in Bangladesh.
The Jet Airways official termed the latest fare promotional and said it would continue from May 18 to June 30.
The fare war began as Liquor baron Vijay Mallya led private airline Kingfisher Airlines to debut on the Dhaka-Kolkata route on May 15. It is the sixth airline to secure a slice of the air-travel market, which is blessed mainly by Bangladeshi medical treatment seekers, tourists and business people.
21/05/09 Sohel Parvez/The Daily Star, Bangladesh

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Categories: Air india Budget May 2009, Foreign May 2009, Jet Airways May 2009, Kingfisher May 2009