Air Deccan offers 500,000 free tickets

Bangalore, Apr 12 (UNI) To mark the occasion of new year in various regions of the country, low cost carrier Air Deccan today announced a mega offer of half a million tickets at zero price, plus taxes and surcharge.

The airline, in a statement here, said the tickets would be available for sale across all sectors and all its 350 flights for travel between July one and October 27. Bookings for these tickets would open on April 14 at 0800 hrs. The airline also announced opening of regular bookings across all flights and sectors for travel during the same period.

Air Deccan Chief Revenue Officer and Head (Marketing) Samyukth Sridharan said the airliner, which had earlier announced various innovative pricing policies with tickets ranging between Rupee one and Rs 500, had taken a step forward by releasing free tickets for the first time in the history of the airline. ''We believe this will assist us in reaching closer to our vision of making flying common in India.'' The idea was to encourage and stimulate travel even during lean seasons. An average load factor of 80 per cent over the last six months was witness to the fact that Air Deccan had been able to maintain a healthy balance between peak and non-peak seasons, he added.

Air Deccan also announced that all new tickets booked on and after April 14 would not be refundable. The tickets could, however, be rescheduled to another date, flight or sector.

UNI