Air Deccan opened booking of three lakh of its seats at Rs 7 per ticket, SpiceJet’s fare for 99,999 seats during this period is 99 ps.
BANGALORE: Airlines seem to be flying the good times as they turn around and cut losses - or even post profit, as Deccan Aviation just did. Does it mean the bloody fare war is over? Doesn’t look like.
With the annual lean phase (mid-February to mid-April) of the aviation sector about to set in, hint of yet another price war is in the air.
Budget carriers Air Deccan and SpiceJet have already announced their special offer prices for the season.
While Air Deccan has opened booking of three lakh of its seats at Rs 7 per ticket, SpiceJet’s fare for 99,999 seats during this period is 99 paise.
Other carriers are waiting. “We have our check fares in place but our pricing strategy will depend on the market situation. The price will be fixed according to competition,” says Jet Airways CEO Wolfgang Prock-shauer.
He may be forced to give in to the price competition because an enlarging inventory of seats - carriers are getting deliveries of additional planes would have to be filled up in the lean season. The answer to overcapacity and lower demand is just one — aggressive fares.
“We have a large inventory to sell,” said Mohan Kumar, director-finance, Deccan Aviation, explaining the airline’s logic behind discounted fares.
The logic works for SpiceJet, too. It gets its 11th aircraft on February 4.
Sanjay Kumar, vice-president, sales and planning, SpiceJet, said: “With this, we will be starting eight new flights. We are also increasing the frequency of night flights. Attractive pricing will help us to dispose of this additional capacity.”
The lean-season traffic is around 10-15% lower than peak season. So even Kingfisher Airlines, which is not a price warrior, will bring down fares.
“Even though it is the leisure travel that gets affected during this time, we also adjust our fares marginally as our loads see a slight drop,” said Manoj Chacko, Kingfisher Airline general manager - sales.
One solace is that none is expecting as fierce a price war as last year, because no new airline has entered the fray this year.
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