The Hindu : Business : New scheme from Air Sahara

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jul 20, 2004

Business

Business

New scheme from Air Sahara

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JULY 19. Fare wars in the domestic skies have started hotting up again. In a bid to lure AC two-tier train passengers to take to air travel, Air Sahara today announced the first advance purchase (Apex) return fare scheme, reducing fares by about 30-35 per cent on major metro sectors.

The private domestic carrier said the latest `SurPrice' scheme would come into operation from August 20, allowing purchase of return air tickets one month in advance. Under the new scheme, the Apex return fare on Delhi-Mumbai-Delhi ticket would be Rs. 4444 and a Delhi-Kolkata-Delhi ticket would come as cheap as Rs. 5555 compared with the earlier return Apex fare of Rs. 6900 on both sectors. The normal economy class air fare on Delhi-Mumbai-Delhi is Rs. 14420 while for Delhi-Kolkata-Delhi it is Rs. 16530. The return AC two-tier fare on the two sectors are: Rs. 4420 and Rs. 4670 respectively.

"Our new round trip apex fares are targeted at the second class AC train passengers who would like to shift to air travel if offered competitive fare structure. We are targeting a wholly new segment of people who would like to go on holiday with the family and can well be the first time air travellers. There is tremendous growth potential in this segment," Air Sahara President, Rono J. Dutta, told reporters here. The tickets would have to be purchased at least 30 days in advance and the maximum period of stay at the destination would be 90 days. At least one Sunday stay at the destination is required under the new scheme, as travel on Sundays would not be permitted.

Air Sahara has put the return Apex fares for Delhi-Hyderabad-Delhi sector at Rs. 5,555, while that on the Delhi-Bangalore-Delhi sector at Rs. 6,666. Fares on Delhi-Chennai-Delhi, Mumbai-Kolkata-Mumbai, Kolkata-Bangalore-Kolkata and Kolkata-Chennai-Kolkata, are Rs. 6,666 each. The Air Sahara chief said the scheme aimed at bringing good load factors to the airline and keeping it at an annual load factor of 70 per cent.

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