Low-cost airlines drop fares in monsoon sale

In a three-day discount sale beginning Thursday, low-cost airlines such as GoAir, IndiGo and SpiceJet have dropped fares. Discounted tickets starting from Rs 1,699 (IndiGo) and Rs 1,999 (SpiceJet) are available for travel from August 18 till September end. This would be SpiceJet's second discount offer within a week.

August and September are low season for air travel and average load factors of all airlines were about 75 per cent and 68 per cent last year. The sale will help the airlines push up advance bookings as flights typically get filled up 10 days before date. "Low cost carriers have started three day sale on flights across sectors aimed at boosting travel during the lean season between long weekends (August 15-18) and October (2-5),: said Sharat Dhall, president Yatra.com.

With popular destinations such as Goa, Guwahati, Port Blair, Dharamshala, Udaipur, Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi being served under these promotions, we expect travellers to make use of this limited-period offer. Travellers can receive discounts ranging from 50-80 per cent depending on the sector. There is good news for international travellers too. SpiceJet has announced introductory fares to Kathmandu from Bagdogra and Kolkata starting August 13 for the first 1,000 seats on a first come-first served basis," Rajesh Magow, co-founder & chief executive officer, India, MakeMyTrip said.