Fares to Southeast Asia drop to as low as Rs3,000 per passenger.
Airfares plunging on the Southeast Asian, Middle Eastern and South Asian sectors have made flying to these foreign destinations cheaper than air travel within the country.
Budget carriers like Air Asia, Tiger Airways, Air Arabia, Air India Express (AIE) and others are offering fares as low as around Rs3000 per passenger from many south Indian destinations like Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Chennai and Tiruchirappali to Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and Penang.
For instance, Malaysian no-frill carrier Air Asia has come out with promotional offers that peg its fare at Rs3169 between Kochi and Kuala Lumpur. This is 41% lower than the lowest air ticket price available on SpiceJet Delhi-Mumbai flight on March 26 of Rs5374 plus taxes.
And it’s not just Air Asia, which is offering discounted fares to push up demand. Its rivals are matching their fares to its offer to avoid losing passengers.
V Chandrasekhar, senior manager – corporate communication, of Air India, Bangalore said his airline’s low cost subsidiary Air India Express, which flies to on same routes as Air Asia and other overseas budget carriers, was offering similar fares.
“We (AIE) have kept our prices at par with other low cost airlines to effectively compete with them,” he said.
Deep Kalra, founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of travel portal MakeMyTrip, said fares have hit the rock bottom in the last one month due to rise in low fare capacity on these sectors. “There is clearly pressure on fares on these routes because there is a lot more capacity on them today than a few months back. Many new flights have been launched on these sectors. Both Kingfisher Airlines and Jet Airways have recently launched flights and they will be adding more ,” he said.
Kalra said the current level of fares is around 20% lower than what was being offered by international flight operator during the same time last year.
“These are promotional or introductory fares to spur demand on new routes but are intensifying price competition on the sector,” he said.
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