Air India joins discount race, cuts domestic fares 20-46%

While a strike is on, air passengers suffer. But once it is over they get a bonanza, even if only for a few days. The end of the five-day agitation by Jet Airways’ pilots, which affected normal flight operations, first led to the airline cutting by 50 per cent the economy class fares on its domestic flights for three days. This forced the other airlines to follow suit.

The latest to join the bandwagon is the state-owned Air India (Domestic), which has reduced its fares by 20-46 per cent on seven routes, including Delhi-Mumbai, Delhi-Hyderabad, Delhi-Chennai and Mumbai-Nagpur. To enjoy these low fares, passengers have to complete their journey by September 18.

Air India (Domestic) will offer a one-way fare of Rs 3,329 on all flights between Delhi and Hyderabad and Hyderabad and Delhi, which works out to a discount of 46.6 per cent; the lowest fare on offer earlier was Rs 6,049.

Similarly, a one-way ticket on all flights on the Mumbai-Nagpur-Mumbai sector will be available for Rs 3,079. The airline is also offering a reduced fare of Rs 2,729 on seven of the daily flights between Delhi and Mumbai and eight of the daily flights between Mumbai and Delhi.

On this sector, the reduction is almost 26 per cent, as the earlier lowest normal fare was Rs 3,679.

Sources indicated that on Monday low-cost airline GoAir dropped fares to match those offered by Jet Airways. Travel portals have also been offering one-way tickets on various domestic airlines at rock-bottom prices.

Discount period
On Tuesday evening, Jet Airways made it clear that it will not be extending the discounted fare offer beyond September 18.

“The 50 per cent discount fare initiative for three days was our way of apologising to all our loyal guests for the inconvenience caused by the recent events. We will not be extending it…” the Chief Commercial Officer, Mr Sudheer Raghavan, said.

The airline also considered reducing business class fares on select flights for a limited period but eventually decided against it.

A statement issued by the airline announcing the reduction in business class fares was withdrawn shortly after it was issued on Monday. The decision to lower fares comes at a time when there has been a 26 per cent growth in the number of passengers that the domestic airlines carried in August compared with the previous month.

Source: The Hindu Business Line