Air Sahara offers cheapest Delhi-London return fare

Private carrier Air Sahara on Monday announced a limited number of tickets on the Delhi-London route for a total cost, including taxes, of Rs 17,500 for a return ticket.

With this, the cheapest option on this route has come down by Rs 8,000. The actual cost of the ticket, minus taxes, is only Rs 10,000.

The airline will offer a total of 2,006 such tickets over the next 12 months, which works out to less than six tickets in every flight if Sahara operates one flight each day of the year starting tomorrow. Other airlines operating on the route said they were aware of the development and would take a call on price cuts at an appropriate time.

"We have always been the price leader. Expect us to come up with such schemes regularly," said Ronojoy Dutta, president, Air Sahara.

These limited tickets, which would be up for grabs from Tuesday, would be available on the redesigned website of the airline and would be valid for one year from the date of purchase.

Air Sahara also plans to start services to Hong Kong and Bangkok and a second daily flight to Singapore in the next few months, he said. Dutta added that it can launch these services, as it will be inducting seven Boeing 737-800s in the next 12 months.

Asked whether the domestic fares would further decline, Dutta said, "Quite potentially, yes. The (domestic) fares should continue to fall. Not just due to the decline in jet fuel prices, we are ready for this eventuality internally".