Air India offers up to 30% discount

Booking for tickets under the 'Short Term Promotion Sale Bonanza' will start tomorrow and would continue till March 1

Days after budget airlines led by SpiceJet lowered ticket rates by up to 75 per cent to avail early summer season bookings, Air India joined the fare war on Wednesday. The state-owned airline announced up to 30 per cent discount on advance ticket purchases, with an extended travel period on select flights on local routes as well as domestic leg of international flights.

The scheme covers 115 flights and offers about 30 per cent discount on the apex 30, 60 and 90 levels, Air India said. The booking for tickets under the short-term promotion sale bonanza will start on Thursday and continue till March 1 for travel between March 29 and September 30, it said. Under the offer, a one-way ticket for the Goa-Mumbai route will cost Rs 1,586 (excluding taxes), while passengers will have to shell out Rs 3,470 (excluding taxes) for journey between Mumbai and Kolkata.

One-way journey on the Thiruvananthapuram-Mumbai route will cost Rs 2,557, while the fare for a Delhi-Lucknow flight is Rs 1, 889. On Monday, SpiceJet triggered a third round of fare war in the last one month, lowering fares by up to 75 per cent. The no-frill airline had announced a 50 per cent and 30 per cent reduction in fares in quick succession in mid-January to attract customers. The move was immediately aped by its rivals IndiGo and GoAir with almost matching discounts.