Indian carriers must take responsibility for irrational pricing

Mumbai, Sep 30 (UNI) Ryanair's former chairman Patrick Murphy today said that control of pricing and generating revenue from non-ticket sources are the key to success in airline business.

Mr Murphy also discussed the art of pricing and said that carriers in India must take responsibility for irrational prices.

''The market is a far more powerful determinant of prices than are costs. But pricing is fundamentally an art and it requires experience and professionalism from management,'' he told delegates at the third annual India and Middle East LCC symposium.

Pricing directly affects a carrier's yield and therefore profitability, said Mr Murphy. It is crucial to rationally manage this and to also look at other ways of generating revenue independent of fare prices, he added.

''The golden rule is do not delegate pricing decisions down the line. This is an often committed mistake. CEOs and senior executives need to take responsibility for pricing to ensure profitability,'' he said. Mr Murphy is current chairman of Aviation Performance Consultants based in Geneva.

The symposium, which includes full service and LCC CEOs, also heard about various ancillary revenue opportunities from Ryanair in Europe which aiming to increase ancillary revenues to represent 50 per cent of its total revenues.

Air Deccan's COO Warwick Brady said the low-cost airline earns nine per cent of its total revenues from ancillary sources, including advertising on aircraft.

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