Air India offers 'hefty discounts' on last-minute bookings

In a huge respite to passengers reeling under the impact of exorbitant fares since the grounding of Jet Airways, national carrier Air India Friday said it will sell last-minutes tickets at a "hefty discount".

Earlier, an airline official had told PTI that it would offer a flat 50 percent discount on last-minute bookings.

Air India has decided to sell the very last minutes inventory within three hours of departure at a "hefty discount," the airline said in a statement, without quantifying the discount.

The decision was taken at a commercial review meeting of the airline at its headquarters on Friday, the airline statement added.

Generally, customers are forced to shell out over 40 percent or more for the last-minute bookings over the average fares. However, in case of a demand-supply mismatch following the grounding of Jet Airways, the difference is much higher normally, an airline official said.

Now the last-minute travelers, especially those travelling for urgencies, can book tickets at much cheaper level, the airline added.

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