Gujarat airlines unleash price war

Operators offer jargon-friendly packages; tickets at half the normal prices

Words like apex and super apex are pass"�. Its the time for jargons like 'tango fare', 'union fare' and 'check fare' for the price-sensitive air travelers of Gujarat.

Just use these jargons at the right place and right time. And you will be the proud owner of an Indian Airlines air ticket to Mumbai from Ahmedabad at Rs 2,730, while a Jet Airways ticket on the same route will cost you Rs 2,751. This is compared with the regular fares of Rs 4135 and Rs 4211 for these airlines, respectively.

Similarly, flying to Delhi from Ahmedabad may cost you Rs 2,485 and Hyderabad Rs 4,195 by Indian Airlines as compared with the regular fares of Rs 6,230 for Delhi and Rs 7,195 for Hyderabad, if you are opting for the positioning of flight fares.

"With cut-throat competition in the domestic civil aviation industry and with the emerging new airline companies, our fares in all these sectors are very competitive. Apart from the normal economy class and business class, we are offering promotional fares, return excursion fares, point to point fares, advance purchase (APEX) fares and USD fares," said Snehal Avashia, area manager for Gujarat, Jet Airways, on Monday.

A passenger travelling to Delhi from Ahmedabad, who needs to return back to Ahmedabad, may opt for a round trip fares offered by Indian Airlines or return excursion fares offered by Jet Airways.

This round trip fare for Ahmedabad-Delhi-Ahmedabad offered by Indian Airlines would cost Rs 11,310 and the return excursion fares offered by Jet Airways would cost Rs 11,352 instead of the one-way fare of Rs 6,230 by Indian Airlines and Rs 6,246 by Jet Airways.

"We are having various other promotional fares apart from the regular fares in almost all the sectors. If a consumer is aware about these schemes, he may fly with us at the cost of travelling in a train," said a senior official of the Indian Airlines in Ahmedabad.

If one can plan travel in advance, he can fly paying less than 50 per cent of the airfares, which if compared may be even less than train fares.

Booking air tickets 21 days in advance would cost only Rs 2,620 flying to Delhi from Ahmedabad by Indian Airlines, Rs 1,945 for Mumbai, Rs 3,200 for Hyderabad and Rs 5,195 for Bangalore, Rs 6,420 for Kolkata.

Similarly, booking air tickets 30 days in advance by Jet airways would cost Rs 1,906 for flying to Mumbai, Rs 2,681 for Delhi, Rs 4,126 for Chennai, and Rs 4,441 for Coimbatore as compared to the regular fare of Rs 4,211 for Mumbai, Rs 6,246 for Delhi, Rs 9,901 for Chennai and Rs 10,121 for Coimbatore.

On the other hand, no-frill airlines like Air Deccan claims to revolutionise the civil aviation industry by dynamic pricing.

An Ahmedabad- Mumbai ticket may cost as less as Rs 750 if the ticket is brought three months in advance as compared to the regular fare of Rs 2,060.

"We allocate our seats in such a manner that no seats will be wasted. Around 50 per cent of our seats will cost 50 per cent of the cost offered by other airlines. Of the remaining 50 per cent, the passenger can travel paying around Rs 500 for a Mumbai-Delhi flight on a first-cum-first serve basis," says G R Gopinath, managing director, Air Deccan.

Gopinath said, "Few of the private airlines fearing competition have tried to cause barriers by putting pressure on the civil aviation ministry on operational and administrative issues, but the minister was not convinced. India have enough space for private airlines and all will be benefited by a healthy competition. We assure that our low fares comes with high standards of flight safety, we have very stringent safety regulations in place, approved by the regulatory authorities, to ensure a safe flight for the customers."