Air India slashes fares

Monday 31/12/2018 - Source: Airline news

State-owned Air India yesterday announced fare cuts of up to 82% in at least 20 sectors, and a senior airline official said there could be another round of reduction.
"As many as 20 major sectors will offer on average a reduction of 52% in basic fares. The new fare cut comes into effect today,"Air India said in a statement.
A senior airlines official said the move would largely benefit passengers on metro routes, and added: "You can expect a second round of fare cut soon. Our fare cut will trigger further competition and will force other airlines to further reduce fares."
Two private carriers, Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines, too have reduced fares since Sunday.
Air India's fare cut is the highest on the Bangalore-Chennai sector, which has seen the basic fare slashed to Rs200 from Rs1,100 - a reduction of nearly 82%.
On prime routes the like Delhi-Mumbai sector, the airline brought down the basic fare to Rs1,675 from Rs3,300, a reduction of 49%.
Similarly, the Mumbai-Bangalore basic fare is now Rs1,200, down 52% from Rs2,475.
The fares are exclusive of taxes as well as fuel surcharge, which is Rs1,950 for sectors less than 750km and Rs2,700 for above 750km.
Jet Airways on Monday reduced fares on its domestic routes by up to 40% with immediate effect.
In a statement, Jet said the economy class base fare will now be Rs2,000 on its Mumbai-Delhi flight, Rs4,065 on the Mumbai-Kolkata route, Rs1,220 on the Bangalore-Mumbai sector and Rs500 on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad sector.
These fares are exclusive of taxes, which average about Rs3,500 on every economy ticket.
Kingfisher Airlines on Sunday announced fare cut from January 1. However, it has not said by how much the fares would be cut.
Low-cost carriers are also expected to follow suit, an industry official said. The fare cuts come in the wake of slackening demand in the post-peak season and continued decline in fuel prices.
Over the past four months, there has been a sharp decline in aviation fuel prices. While some airlines earlier this month reduced the fuel surcharge on the ticket price by Rs200 to Rs400, they did not touch the base fare.
Oil companies have reduced aviation fuel prices seven times since September. The fuel is now sold at Rs32,691.28 per kilolitre in Delhi after prices were slashed by Rs4,208.37 in the first week of December.