Low-cost air fares may rise marginally

Mumbai: Buoyed by the increase in passenger traffic in April, low-cost airlines are planning to hike their fares marginally in a few weeks.
“Fares could increase marginally going forward, maybe, in June. We have not yet decided on the quantum of hike, but the industry could see a minor price adjustment in the next few weeks,” said Samyukth Sridharan, chief commercial officer, SpiceJet. Factoring in a 5% hike, a ticket on the Mumbai-Delhi route in a low-cost airline will be in the range of Rs 3,601-3,714, up from a maximum of Rs 3,539 currently.
Domestic passenger traffic, which fell by 12% in the first three months of the year, picked up marginally last month as almost two lakh more passengers took to the skies than in March. Leading the trend was Kingfisher Airlines and its low-cost arm Kingfisher Red carrying 8.61 lakh passengers, followed by Jet Airways and JetLite flying 7.96 lakh, and Air India (domestic) at 5.83 lakh, according to official traffic figures for April released on Thursday.
In April, full-service carriers Kingfisher and Jet Airways had increased their fares by Rs 300 citing the rising prices of jet fuel. Low-cost airlines were about to follow suit, but a steep 70% cut in Air India fares changed their plan. M Thiagarajan, MD of Paramount, said the fares could now go up.
22/05/09 Mithun Roy/Economic Times

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General May 2009, Low Cost General May 2009