Fares fall after Govt’s rebuke, airlines sulk

New Delhi: A day after they were warned of a crackdown over skyrocketing fares, domestic airlines seemed to have fallen in line. Airfares on most routes were back in the Rs 6,000-9,000 bracket on Saturday. "Tickets on the Delhi-Mumbai sector, for Saturday evening and Sunday morning, are available for Rs 5,900 to R6,525. On the Delhi-Chennai route it’s between Rs 6,000-7,500, Delhi-Hyderabad is available between Rs 6,300 and Rs 9,100 and Delhi-Kolkata is selling for around Rs 7,100,” said Rajji Rai, president, Travel Agents Association of India.
The fares, Rai said, had come down drastically in the last 24-hours. “For the last two weeks, the lowest available ticket on the Delhi-Mumbai sector was priced over Rs 17,000,” he said.
“The drop in fares just shows that airlines can afford to sell tickets at lower rates and still make money. To take
advantage of a difficult situation and fleece and exploit the customer is the worst crime a manufacturer or a service provider can commit,” said R Desikan of the Consumer Association of India.
But private carriers are not very happy with the government’s move. “Why should the government regulate anything in an era of deregulation and competition,” Kinghfisher Airlines chairman Vijay Mallya was quoted as saying in Bangalore. “An airlines seat is a perishable commodity. It is dictated by demand and supply. Dynamic pricing is practised all over the world by every airline without exception. I do not understand why we are making a song and dance of it in India,” Mallya said.
04/12/10 Tushar Srivastava/Hindustan Times

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General Dec 2010