Fares dip as airlines look to low-cost model

New Delhi: Kingfisher Airlines and Jet Airways have converted around half their capacity into low-cost services. This has contributed to bringing down the average fares of airlines as a whole by about 30 per cent, from about Rs 4,000 in September last year to Rs 2,700 currently, a key reason why the domestic passenger market is looking up after months of decline.
“The number of low-cost seats in the system has increased by over 50 per cent this year compared with the same period last year,” said Mohit Shrivastava, head of online sales at Makemytrip.com.
Among the full service carriers, the government carrier, Air India, plans to launch a low-cost model in the domestic skies. It already has a low-cost airline called Air India Express which operates on international routes.
KIngfisher Airlines has converted some full services into LCCs, shifting these to Kingfisher Red (earlier called
Air Deccan, the country’s first LCC) from Kingfisher Airlines (the full service operations).
Jet Airways, the oldest private airline in India, has also increased the number of low-cost seats in the system by around 50 per cent. This does not include the seats offered by JetLite, which could take the number of total low-cost seats being offered to around 65 per cent.
“..We launched JetKonnect in June this year and that contributed to most of it,” said a source in the airline.
Indigo has increased the total number of seats by around 40 per cent in the past year.
SpiceJet has also increased the number of seats, by 53 per cent, not by increasing the number of aircraft but by raising the number of flights.
17/10/09 Mihir Mishra/Business Standard

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