Jet Airways, IndiGo join fare war after Air India discount

Private carriers Jet Airways and IndiGo joined the fare war on Tuesday to take on Air India (AI) , which is offering heavy discounts to increase its market share.

Naresh Goyal-promoted Jet offered fares as low as Rs 1,832 (excluding taxes) for a one-way journey on the busy Delhi-Mumbai sector.

The Jet offer is available for tickets booked between Tuesday and Sunday for travel between January 16 and April 15. Low-cost airline IndiGo launched a 90-day advance purchase scheme offering a starting fare of Rs1,647 for the Delhi-Lucknow route.

Yatra.Com president Sharat Dhall said, "This is a bonanza for travellers planning breaks during the long weekends around holidays for Republic Day, Valentine's Day, Holi, and Easter. In addition, travellers, particularly from South and West India, are using these low fares to make early bookings for the summer holiday break. With an approximately 35-per cent reduction in airfares, the response has been tremendous with close to a 400 per cent increase in bookings on our site."

AI had announced discount for up to 50 per cent across its domestic routes for a limited period on Monday.

Incidentally, carriers are engaged in a fare war at a time when the government is mulling a cap on the minimum and maximum fares to check both over charging and predatory pricing by the airlines.

The civil aviation ministry is considering a proposal to cap the maximum fare of economy class at a reasonable price of around Rs 20,000 beyond which an airline should not be allowed to charge and exploit passengers.

The government is also of the view that some of the airlines are in danger of facing huge losses due to the hefty discounts which in some cases do not even cover operating costs.