Fare crash leads to air rush

The New Year brought good tidings for the aviation industry with the decreasing passenger bookings looking up again in the wake of reduction in fares.

The New Year brought good tidings for the aviation industry with the decreasing passenger bookings looking up again in the wake of reduction in fares.

As per initial estimates, 15- 20 per cent more passengers have booked tickets during this week, after various airlines announced reduction in fares.

While Jet Airways has reduced the fare upto 40 percent from Thursday, Air India reduced fare up to 80 per cent on December 30 on 20 major domestic sectors. Falling in line Spice Jet announced au00a0 scheme of Rs 99 as base fare across its network for tickets booked 21 days or more, prior to the date of travel. The scheme is valid till June 30, 2009. Kingfisher Airlines, which started the low fare war, is also likely to announce the cut anytime now.

Aviation industry experts point out that the fare cut was imminent as air turbine fuel prices have gone down and industry has recorded passenger rush as low as 30 lakh in November this year.

"Though a clear picture will emerge in the next few days it is estimated that 15-20 per cent more bookings have come after the fare cut was announced by Air India and Jet Airways,"u00a0 said, Rajji Rai, President, Travel Agents Association of India.

Global slowdown, coupled with terror strikes in different parts of the country had hit the air transport very badly.

"There was a fall of 15-20 per cent in air passenger rush due to economic slowdown. Terror strikes also affected the air transport very badly especially after Mumbai attack, a fall of around 15 per cent was witnessed," said Pradeep Lulla, president, Travel Agents Federation of India.

"It is gaining momentum now. And fare cuts would definitely prove advantageous at such a point," he added.
However, for a number of people, the fare-reduction is not "meaningful".

"The reduction would be significant only when when airlinesu00a0 reduce fuel surcharge," said Sudhakara Reddy, President, Air Passenger Association of India.

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