Air Sahara offers 91 per cent savings on normal fares

New Delhi, Dec 4 (UNI) Private carrier Air Sahara today announced special fares with up to 91 per cent discount to mark 13 years of operations.

The tickets valid for travel between January 1 to April 30 next year will be available for sale till December 15.

However passengers will have to pay Rs 1,121 extra - Rs 750 for fuel surcharge, Rs 221 for passenger service fee and Rs 150 for congestion surcharge.

''Despite booming demand, there is excess seat capacity with us,'' said Air Sahara's president Alok Sharma. ''Hence the launch of special anniversary advance purchase fares during high traffic season.'' After the deal of Jet Airways to buy Air Sahara fell through, the latter has been in aggressive mode and has jacked up seat capacity by 40 per cent since July. With 131 daily flights and 300 connections, it offers over 17,000 seats.

The figure will go up to 24,000 seats by March-end, 2007. The airline has also placed an order to purchase 10 brand new Boeing 737-800 aircraft worth 700 million dollars (about Rs 3,290 crore) at list prices. Deliveries will be staggered over 2009 to 2011.

Currently, Air Sahara has 21 Boeings and seven CRJ-200s. It flies to 26 national and five international destinations including Colombo, Kathmandu, Singapore, Male and Chicago, the code-share destination with American Airlines.

UNI SU PV ND1432