Domestic airlines reduce fares ahead of monsoon

New Delhi, May 27: With monsoons round the corner, domestic airlines are offering tickets at throw-away prices.

Several of them have announced special offers to woo passengers to travel during the rainy season which is considered a lean period.

Despite incurring heavy losses, airlines are offering tickets at Rs 225 or 99 paise. Budget carriers like Air Deccan, GoAir and SpiceJet have even offered free tickets to passengers.

Full service carrier Jet Airways is also joining the monsoon offer bandwagon to fill space during the lean season.

These cheap fares are tactics to stimulate passengers to travel more, say industry analysts, and fill as many seats as possible. The rainy season is the worst time for airlines. Therefore, airlines are selling seats in advance by offering cheaper fares.

According to estimates, domestic airlines posted a net loss of about Rs 2,000 crore during last financial year.

Jet Airways, the country's largest private airline, is offering special advance fares in 40 sectors, including Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, Bangalore and Goa.

The airlines' monsoon fares are priced lower than normal economy or check fares. Under the scheme on offer, passengers can book flights on certain domestic routes 10, 15, 20 and 25 days before the travel date, and the journey should be undertaken by September 30.

For instance, passengers will get fares as low as Rs 1,000 on the Mumbai-Bangalore route if the booking is done 25 days in advance. Air Deccan, the largest low-cost airline, has already announced a mega offer of one lakh tickets at Rs 0, excluding taxes and surcharge. These tickets are available for sale across all routes and all its 350 flights for travel between July 1 and August 31. The airline connects to 65 airports across the country, including all metros.

SpiceJet is offering two lakh seats at a special price of 99 paise for two or more passengers travelling together. This would be open for two weeks (May 22 to June 6) on all its 14 destinations.

GoAir has come up with a special offer for the festive season begining from July to September 2007 with tickets priced at Rs 225 for all of its destinations.

The budget airline operates 59 flights a day across 11 destinations in the country covering Srinagar, Jammu, Delhi, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Goa, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai and Kochi.

GoCelebrate has prices starting at Rs 225 for short-haul flights on sectors like Mumbai-Goa and Ahmedabad-Delhi and Rs 525 for long haul flights such as Mumbai-Delhi, Mumbai-Jaipur, Bangalore-Mumbai and Mumbai-Chennai.

Various airlines have also geared up to reduce passenger inconvenience during the monsoons when flights are often delayed due to inclement weather.

UNI