Airfares slashed as lean season sets in

New Delhi: A newly formed committee to look into steep hikes in airfares may have little to do for the next three months with ticket prices crashing with the onset of the lean travelling season from 10 January.
Airlines are now charging just about one-third of what they were during the peak months of November and December, even on key routes.
The price of a Delhi-Mumbai ticket booked a fortnight in advance is down to Rs.3,276 from around Rs.8,000 two months ago, while that of a ticket bought a day before the flight is down to Rs.5,426 from Rs.17,000.
“The airfares will follow a dip,” said Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation’s (Capa) South Asia chief executive officer Kapil Kaul. “After 7-10 January, discussion on fares will no longer be relevant.”
Kaul is a member of the committee formed by the aviation ministry in December to study airfares and other issues in the wake of an exorbitant rise in ticket prices during the busy festival season. An executive at a domestic airline said the fall in fares was inevitable.
“Sectors which were seeing high demand are now seeing very low sales even for next-day departure. With demand coming down, airlines are forced to drag down fares,” added this person who did not want to be identified.
Fares are likely to remain low until mid-April.
Full-service airlines such as Jet Airways (India) Ltd, Kingfisher Airlines Ltd and Air India are selling Delhi-Mumbai tickets at Rs.3,882-4,378, while low-cost carriers such as SpiceJet, IndiGo and GoAir have brought fares down to Rs.3,500-3,800 on the same route, according to data available on travel websites.
12/01/11 Tarun Shukla/Live Mint

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General Jan 2011