The Hindu Business Line : Apex fares may see encouraging response

Mumbai, March 28 While the domestic airlines find it too early to comment on the passenger response after the advance purchase offers, travel agents are hoping for a good summer.

Several Indian carriers have announced 30-day advance fares to tap on the summer holiday rush. Air India announced 30-day advance purchase fares in four levels – Rs 1,891, Rs 2,276, Rs 2,611 and Rs 2,901 available in 148 domestic sectors.

Jet Airways and JetLite had begun similar offering from March 24 with low airfares starting from Rs 2,071 for Jet Airways, and Rs 1,722 for JetLite.

SpiceJet also reduced its fare for all bookings made for 30 or more days in advance applicable on all its 119 flights in the new summer schedule across 18 destinations. The reduction is up to Rs 600 a ticket.

Portal bookings up

Cleartrip’s Mr Noel Swain said the travel portal has seen 20 per cent surge in bookings in the current week against last for the period ending April and beginning of May.

He added three to four per cent of the portal’s bookings are advance purchases, but with the new offers in the category this week, it has now doubled to about eight per cent.

Yatra, on the other hand, has seen 10-15 per cent advance bookings in this week for May, said Ms Bhawana Agarwal from the Delhi-based travel portal.

She said there is uncertainty among customers because the fare scenario keeps changing with time and they (customers) do not want to block money so much in advance. However, she was optimistic about bookings picking up in the next 10-12 days.

Meanwhile, the airlines remained silent on the booking scenario. Air India spokesperson said, “It’s little too early to comment as we have announced the fares just yesterday (Thursday)”.

Mr Samyukth Sridharan from SpiceJet reiterated the same, adding the impact will be known from first week of April, but indicated that initial trends have been encouraging. He added these fares fuel the demand from price sensitive customers, in return increasing the size of the aviation pie.

He also clarified that there has been no reduction in the fares per se if one books 10-20 days in advance. In fact, he hoped the fares would start “firming up” once the season picks up, as they are demand dependent.

Commenting on what these special fares would mean for the airlines’ financial health, Mr Sridharan said, “These offers need not really mean more number of seats being offered at discounted rates”.

Elaborating on the strategy, Mr Swain said, “Airlines get about 70 per cent of their bookings within 10 days of travel. But with these advance fares, good part of bookings happens in advance leaving them less dependent on last minute bookings.”

Interestingly, summer being the peak season, airlines usually increase fares, but this year it’s slashing all the way. “Well, in current times when people are looking to conserve cash, fares have to be competitive for the demand to come in. We hope from April the fares would move up,” said Ms Agarwal.

More Stories on : Airlines | Online Marketing

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Kingfisher likely to be official partner for IPL-2

Apex fares may see encouraging response

GRSE launches 3 attack vessels

Routes Asia to discuss economic woes