A-I cuts non-stop US fares by 33%

To compete with private airlines, state-owned carrier Air-India has reduced fares by an average 33 per cent for its non-stop Mumbai-New York flight from August 1 on its fully furnished new Boeing B777-200-LR aircraft.

Air-India took delivery of these B777-200 aircraft in Seattle yesterday. Air-India has positioned its fares on a par with airlines offering one-stop services to US, as part of testing the market.

The national carrier has reduced its economy fares by 37.17 per cent to Rs 50,700 (return fares excluding taxes) from Rs 80,700. The executive (business) class fares were lowered by 40.11 per cent to Rs 159,700 against the original price of Rs 2,66,700.

The first class fares of this brand new carrier has reduced by 22.01 per cent to Rs 3,57,700 against Rs 4,58,700. The duration of the flight is approximately sixteen hours, resulting in saving of over 4 hours.

A senior Air-India executive said: "This is the part of strategy of testing the market. This will be a kind of introductory offer. The original fares would be restored once the market becomes sensitised about the experience of non-stop US flights which is offering a world-class facilities on-board."

Travel Agents' Federation of India (TAFI) General Secretary Ajay Prakash said this is the step in right direction which will enable passengers to experience brand new aircraft and its comforts.

Air-India's non-stop flights are equipped with the iThales Entertainment System, with an Audio Video on Demand (AVOD) facility. This handy system attached to every seat can be accessed by a touch screen. Passengers can avail of more than a hundred hours of audio and video entertainment.

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