Air Deccan's Rs 500 Delhi-Mumbai tickets sold out for a year

If you want to buy Air Deccan's Rs 500 Delhi-Mumbai ticket, you will have to wait till August next year, as the tickets in this category have been sold out for a year even before the airline started its service in the sector.

Air Deccan, which is starting its Delhi-Mumbai service on August 26, had set aside about five seats per service in this category. The next category of tickets, priced at Rs 700, is also completely sold out for a year.

In this category also, Air Deccan offers on an average five tickets per trip.

"Our offer has been accepted well. We have about 25 per cent of the seats offered between Rs 500 and Rs 1,500 in the Delhi-Mumbai sector," said G R Gopinath, managing director, Air Deccan.

Besides, in the Bangalore-Delhi sector, where the airline is starting its service on August 25, Air Deccan has offered all its tickets for Rs 500. The inaugural flight of Deccan in the sector is also full.

As per the plans of the low-cost carrier, over 50 per cent of the seats in the airline's Delhi-Mumbai sector will be 50 per cent cheaper than that of full service operators such as Indian Airlines and Jet Airways.

But, all the tickets in the airline will not be so cheap. There will be some of the tickets which will cost about 70 per cent of the existing fares. Deccan's entry in the busy Delhi-Mumbai sector is expected to kickstart a price war.

The airline plans to start services in the Bangalore-Delhi, Delhi-Mumbai and Mumbai-Chennai routes with two aircraft in the first phase. In the subsequent phases, the airline will put in more aircraft into the routes.

To begin with, it will have two return flights in the busy Delhi-Mumbai sector.

Air Deccan, which will be closing its first full year of operations this year, expects revenues of $125 million with a marginal net profit. In the last year, Air Deccan recorded revenues of about $25 million.