Air Sahara is launching an air ticket auction scheme, under which customers can bid and buy tickets on all its metro flights.
As per the plan, passengers have to long onto the Sahara Website 15 days before the scheduled flight and bid for a limited number of seats. Ten days before the flight the top 20 to 30 bidders will be offered tickets at their bid price. The company will, however, earmark a reserve price for the bidding.
For instance final touches are being given for the Delhi-Mumbai route were the minimum reserve price would be around Rs 2,000. About 20 to 30 seats on various flights would be on offer depending on seasonally, flight timings and days of the week.
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Explaining the logic behind the scheme, Uttam Kumar Bose chief executive officer, Air Sahara, said: "Our main aim is to increase the passenger load factor (PLF), that is, the number of passengers as a percentage of total seats. Through the yield management system software it is now possible to project what kind of PLF you will get in the next few weeks on each flight. As our PLF is not high we have nothing to loose by offering flights which would be going empty any way. It will generate for us extra revenue".
Bose said passengers will in all probability be able to get tickets which are similar in fare or at a slight premium to a ticket on train in an AC 2 tier for the same destination.
Bose said the auction system is not new but is a common prevalence practice in the US and Europe were fares between two locations are not the same as it is in India.
In its bid to gain market share, which was around 8 per cent last year, of the airline market, Sahara has been offering flexible fares for passengers which are between 15-to-30 per cent cheaper than competitors.
With a fleet of 10 aircraft, Sahara plans to expand into the regional market and bring in new aircraft to connect smaller cities with metros directly. It is also offering attractive frequent flier schemes, which include redeeming the miles which passengers have earned from other airline companies.
Sahara for instance is offering a free ticket between Delhi and London and back for passengers who have traveled Delhi-Mumbai and return 13 times and to DisneyLand if they have undertaken the journey 23 times.