Jet Airways cuts fares by 25 to 50 per cent on domestic and international flights

Naresh Goyal controlled Jet Airways on Thursday announced a 25 to 50 per cent discount on fares for travel from November 5 onwards on domestic and international routes for the economy class.

The airline in a statement said the offer is available for five days on bookings made between October 2 to October 6 on base fares and fuel surcharge. For passengers on international routes, discounts will range from 25 per cent to 50 per cent only on base fares on the lowest premiere and economy fares available for travel, the airline said adding that these offers are available on direct domestic and international sectors and also on flights operated with Etihad Airways .

Fare wars have been played out with unprecedented aggression this year, with airlines directly targeting specific routes to take on rivals in fierce competition. Since January this year, Kalanithi Maran promoted SpiceJet has announced at least a dozen discounted fare offers forcing all Indian carriers to follow suit as otherwise they would lose market share.

Jet Airways had announced nine-day special fare offers last month also on economy tickets for travel to and from Bengaluru, with the start of the Navratri season. The fares were available on flights to Chennai, Goa, Kochi, Jaipur and Chandigarh.

Before that Jet had unveiled a first-of-its-kind offer that slashed business class rates substantially across sectors. The scheme was available for fliers on domestic routes besides those flying to international destinations like Singapore, London, Toronto, Bangkok, Dubai, Hong Kong and Dammam.

Jet had been sitting out the volley of discounts offered by low fare carriers and in August lost its number 2 position to SpiceJet. Indian carriers are also expected to announce further discounted fares after public sector oil companies on Wednesday announced a cut in jet fuel price by an average of nearly 4 per cent across cities in India.