 "Jet Airways joins fare war dropping fares in a six day sale")
Jet Airways joined the fare war on Tuesday dropping fares by upto 50% in a six day sale offer. Jet Airways follows Air India and Vistara which slashed fares across the network.
Jet Airways announced it is selling fares upwards of Rs 1557 in a sale till Sunday and travel validity is from January 16-April 15. Even market leader IndiGo has lowered its fares and is offering tickets upwards of Rs 1799.
Jet is offering tickets on Delhi-Mumbai route for travel on January 30 at Rs 3010 nearly 50% lower than Rs 5691 than Monday sale price. Similarly it was selling Mumbai-Bangalore tickets of January 30 at Rs 2309 at a 30% discount to Monday's sale price.
On routes like Mumbai-Bangalore and Mumbai-Ahmedabad Jet Airways is offering fares which are lower than other full service and no frills airlines and on routes likes Delhi-Chennai, Mumbai-Chennai it is second lowest amongst airlines.
IndiGo too has dropped its fares but is not the lowest or second lowest amongst airlines. It is selling tickets on Mumbai-Ahmedabad route for January 30 for Rs 1799 (Monday's sale price was Rs 2986).
"With the Air India sale kick-starting a huge uplift in bookings, Jet and Indigo have joined the bandwagon with sales of their own, targetting early bookings for the upcoming summer season and the numerous long weekends over the next few months. This is a bonanza for travelers planning breaks during the long weekends around holidays for Republic day, Valentine's day, Holi, and Easter. In addition, travelers, particularly from South and West India, are using these low fares to make early bookings for the summer holiday break. With an approximately 35% reduction in airfares, the response has been tremendous with close to a 400% increase in bookings on our site," said Sharat Dhall president of online portal Yatra.com.
The fourth quarter is traditionally a lean season for air travel and occupancies are lower in January-February months. Airlines feel that attractive fares will push up the forward bookings and stimulate demand.