GoAir plans return fares @ Rs 599

Going below the current industry benchmarks of return tickets at Rs 900-1,000 (Rs 400-500 both ways), GoAir is looking at a tie-up with travel portal Cleartrip to offer return fares of Rs 599 across all sectors in India.

At this price, the ticket would be about 65 per cent cheaper than other return fares.

Customers availing of this offer will be able to book tickets for dates up to April 15. However, only around 6,000 seats are on offer for now.

"This is just a start to the entire thing. There will be other lower fares. In fact, we ourselves might be looking at other such tie-ups with GoAir," said a Cleartrip executive. A large part of these fares will be funded by Cleartrip.

"This fare is much lower than the lowest fares offered in the industry now. And though the number of seats offered is small, it will impact other airlines including us," said Kamal Hingorani, VP (marketing), Spice Jet.

Last year, GoAir introduced flat fares inclusive of all taxes of Rs 1,075 on the Delhi-Jaipur route.

"Since GoAir with its limited fleet has not been able to expand much, it has been playing the fare game to garner maximum load. This being a peak season, it obviously makes sense to offer throwaway fares since that is the only way they can hope to maintain passenger volumes. Part-financing by the travel portal will impact their costs slightly," said an industry expert.