Air India to slash fares

New Delhi, Jan 30: Due to declining jet fuel prices, Air India is introducing further cuts in its fares on key domestic routes. This may lead to another round of 'fare war' among domestic carriers, including the no-frill ones.

Under the new APEX-21 scheme, the passenger can avail of a basic fare of Rs 99. Coupled with this, he or she would have to pay Rs 225 as Passenger Service Fee of the government and a fuel surcharge of Rs 2,700. However, the travel has to be undertaken on or before February 28, an Air India spokesman said.

The scheme is effective on most of the state-owned carrier's domestic route network. In December, the last round of fare reduction was done when the state-owned airline had substantially slashed basic fares on 20 major sectors, averaging a reduction of over 50 per cent. Thus, on most of the Air India (Domestic) network, an air traveller can avail of a fare of Rs 3,024 inclusive of taxes.

Since October last year, fares have come down considerably and domestic carriers have again started competing with one another despite their financial health and the global meltdown.

OneIndia News (With inputs from Agencies)