NEW DELHI, May 31 — Living up to its promise of ‘Nano’ fares, AirAsia India began sales of its tickets on Friday night by making available 15,000 tickets with a base fare of Rs 5 (27 sen) excluding airport tax and other fees.
The airline begins operations with flights from Bangalore to Chennai and Goa on June 12.
“The promotional seats at base fare of Rs 5 (excluding airport tax and other applicable fees) are available on flights from Bangalore to Chennai, Chennai to Bangalore, Bangalore to Goa and Goa to Bangalore,” Times of India quoted the
airline as saying in a statement.
Bookings, on www.airasia.com, could be made from 21:30 IST on May 30 until June 1, for travel on June 12-Oct 25, 2014, it said. “I am excited to be able to celebrate the launch of the AirAsia India experience with a surprise promotion.
“The goal is to enable guests who have never flown to take this opportunity to come and experience flying the AirAsia way,” chief executive officer Mittu Chandilya said.
The launch of this low-cost carrier has unleashed a fresh fare war in Indian skies. With Mittu announcing earlier this month that his fares will be 35 per cent lower than current levels, a fare war began on Thursday evening itself,
according to the report.
Once it was known AirAsia India will launch flights from Bangalore to Chennai and Goa, SpiceJet lowered fares on these sectors from June 12, the day AirAsia India begins flying.
SpiceJet announced a “special promotional fare” of Rs 1,499 (RM81.58) on these routes. AirAsia had announced a fare of Rs 990 (RM54) earlier on Friday for the inaugural flights.
The Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) anticipates another round of blood bath in the sector, reported the English daily.
“AirAsia may have underestimated the capacity of Indian carriers to pursue irrational pricing. The incumbents have shown a regular tendency to discount heavily to generate cash, gain market share, fill excess capacity or simply to respond to competition,” said a CAPA report.
This is also a market in which full service carriers offer fares similar to low-cost carriers, and sometimes lower. Airlines continue to price below cost despite their huge accumulated losses and weak balance sheets. It is very difficult to operate in a market in which your competitors seem to have an almost insatiable appetite to lose money.
“Over the last seven years, Indian carriers have lost a combined $10.1 billion, or an average of $22 every time a passenger boards an aircraft,” the report says.
Meanwhile, AirAsia India has scored a high five when it comes to getting an airline code. AirAsia India Pvt Ltd (AAIPL) has ‘I5’ as its airline code, and becomes the only Indian carrier to have a smart code apart from IndiGo, which
has ‘6E’ -— to rhyme with ‘sexy’ -— as its code.
GoAir’s G8 is closer to great, if stretched a bit. All other Indian airlines have either abbreviations of their names or random codes. Air India has AI as its code, while Jet Airways, JetKonnect and SpiceJet have 9W, S2 and SG as their
rather unimaginative codes.
— BERNAMA
