MUMBAI: Air travellers complaining about high ticket prices, please take note: average airfares in India in 2015 have been the cheapest in three years, according to airlines and travel companies.
Ticket prices across fare buckets — spot bookings and three to 14 days in advance — in key sectors were as much as 40 per cent cheaper compared with each of the past three years, according to calculations by travel site Cleartrip and an airline that didn't want to be identified.
"The reason for this is primarily two — the decline in fuel costs being passed on to passengers and the advent of new carriers which has led to an increase of supply in airline seats as well as competition," said Amit Taneja, chief revenue officer at Cleartrip. Don't forget we had seen a contraction in capacity in 2012-13 after Kingfisher AirlinesBSE 3.03 % stopped operating. Also, airlines seem to have decided that in the Indian market, it is better to sell more seats at lower prices than less seats at premiums.
India has over the last few years emerged as a market with the cheapest domestic airfares, thanks mostly to an ever-growing, pricesensitive middle class, which airlines have to woo in order to fill their planes. A survey last year by GoEuro showed Indian local ticket prices as a fraction of what is charged in Finland, Switzerland, Austria and Estonia, apart from much-developed markets such as the US and UK.
India was found to have the cheapest airfares in a list of 43 countries. More than half the Indian market is controlled by low-fare carriers. The market leader is no-frills carrier IndiGo, which has the highest frequencies, especially in the busy metro cities.
That puts in a position to drive pricing trends.
16/12/15 Anirban Chowdhury/The Economic Times
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Ticket prices across fare buckets — spot bookings and three to 14 days in advance — in key sectors were as much as 40 per cent cheaper compared with each of the past three years, according to calculations by travel site Cleartrip and an airline that didn't want to be identified.
"The reason for this is primarily two — the decline in fuel costs being passed on to passengers and the advent of new carriers which has led to an increase of supply in airline seats as well as competition," said Amit Taneja, chief revenue officer at Cleartrip. Don't forget we had seen a contraction in capacity in 2012-13 after Kingfisher AirlinesBSE 3.03 % stopped operating. Also, airlines seem to have decided that in the Indian market, it is better to sell more seats at lower prices than less seats at premiums.
India has over the last few years emerged as a market with the cheapest domestic airfares, thanks mostly to an ever-growing, pricesensitive middle class, which airlines have to woo in order to fill their planes. A survey last year by GoEuro showed Indian local ticket prices as a fraction of what is charged in Finland, Switzerland, Austria and Estonia, apart from much-developed markets such as the US and UK.
India was found to have the cheapest airfares in a list of 43 countries. More than half the Indian market is controlled by low-fare carriers. The market leader is no-frills carrier IndiGo, which has the highest frequencies, especially in the busy metro cities.
That puts in a position to drive pricing trends.
16/12/15 Anirban Chowdhury/The Economic Times
