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SpiceJet on Wednesday launched a three-day sale, its fourth discount offer in a fortnight, of 400,000 tickets, from Rs 599 upwards.
The scheme runs till Friday and the tickets are valid for travel from July 1 to October 24.
So far, the airline has discounted a little over a million tickets in the four offers. By Wednesday afternoon, the airline’s website had slowed from heavy traffic as customers complained of inaccessiblity. “We have got a huge response,” an airline spokesperson said.
Under the offer, tickets on Hyderabad to Vijayawada, Delhi to Dehradun, Guwahati to Kolkata, Ahmedabad to Mumbai, and Bengaluru to Hyderabad are all priced at Rs .599. International flights start at Rs 3,499, for Delhi to Kathmandu, with discounted fares available on most other international routes, too. Of the total of 400,000 e under this offer, a fourth is at the Rs 599 all-in fare.
“Flash sales, like the one SpiceJet announced, have shown increasing consumer interest over the past few quarters,” said Samyukth Sridharan, chief operating officer of Cleartrip, the travel agency.
“Usually, airlines fill only 40 per cent of their seats 30 days & more in advance — essentially, the leisure segment of customers planning their travel. There has always existed an opportunity to increase the advance purchase and make the booking curve healthier. The advantage to the airline, apart from getting to more predictable flight loads well in advance, is to help them grow yield closer to departure. And, obviously, the customer benefits. Specifically, in the current promotion, a family of two booking a round trip flight from Mumbai to Delhi that is 90 days out stands to save Rs 3,700, more than what they would have paid yesterday for the same flights.”
“We are thrilled to continue to make air travel more affordable and accessible for more Indians than ever before,” said Kaneswaran Avili, chief commercial officer, SpiceJet.
“Fares for this offer are lower than AC train fares on many routes and cheaper than non-AC sleeper class trains on several. And, we are including most of our international flights in this offer.”
