Air India jumps into the fray as fare war intensifies

A day after Jet Airways, Indigo, SpiceJet and GoAir kicked off a war over air fares, national carrier Air India on Wednesday launched special fares, offering a discount of up to 40 per cent on one-way regular fare on domestic flights.

Jet Airways yesterday offered two million lakh seats at Rs 2,250 till the year-end. No-frill carriers — IndiGo, SpiceJet and GoAir — followed suit.

According to travel portals, Air India’s offer is the lowest on most major routes.

“Air India is offering discounted fares for tickets booked after seven days. These regimented regular discounts will push airlines in the right direction. This will spur interest from the leisure travellers who have deserted air travel. As long as airlines are maintaining a balance between cannibalisation of their own travellers who would otherwise have also travelled, it is healthy for airlines, too, ” travel portals said.

They confirmed that the ticket sale of Jet Airways jumped seven to eight times on Day 1. Overall, ticket sales have gone up around three times till on Wednesday.

The discounts offered by these airlines are almost across sectors. However, all the carriers, except Jet Airways, have kept themselves flexible. No airline has given any timeline for the current discount offers. “They can align their fares according to the market situation, said Sharat Dhall,” president of Yatra.com.

While official sources said the fare offers had so far not breached the DGCA-prescribed rates, Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh said, "We are not going to prescribe anything (fares). If we fix a lower bracket and the airlines charge lower than that, the issue will go to the competition council." Maintaining the government would not regulate fares, Singh said a cell to monitor the fares was being set up in the ministry. "Whatever needs to be done will be done in consultation with the airlines."  

On the Delhi-Mumbai route, an economy class one-way ticket for mid-April was priced at Rs 3,201 by Air India, Rs 3,340 by IndiGo, Rs 3,350 by Jet Airways and Rs 4,426 by SpiceJet. The Delhi-Chennai sector saw an Air India ticket costing Rs 3,701, IndiGo's being Rs 3,840, Jet Airways' Rs 3,850, Jet Konnect's Rs 4,008 and SpiceJet's Rs 4,714.

A ticket on the Delhi-Kolkata route cost Rs 3,201 for Air India, Rs 3,241 for IndiGo, Rs 4,662 for SpiceJet and Rs 4,663 for Jet Konnect.

Similarly, on the Delhi-Hyderabad route, Air India's ticket was priced at Rs 3,201, IndiGo's at Rs 3,290, Jet's at Rs 3,350 and SpiceJet's at Rs 4,641.