Hike in airfares; video conferencing the answer?

New Delhi, Dec 3: Thursday brought bad news for frequent flyers and jet-setters of the corporate world when airline rates reported an all-time high. With corporate expenditure facing a setback, will

see a revival with the greater internet bandwidth and improved connectivity.

The shocker came in on Thursday when the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) received reviews from different airlines on fixing airfare rates. Four slabs have been submitted based on the distance of the journey, which was clearly 30-40 pct more than the earlier price. The airline companies failed to give a notice or explanation for the hike.

The one way proposed airfares are-

Rs 10,500 for distances less that 750 km (e.g Delhi-Chandigarh, Chennai-Coimbatore)
Rs 14,550 to Rs. 19,500 for distances between 750-1,000 km
Rs 17,000 to Rs. 25,000 for distances between 1,000-1,400 km
Rs 22,000 to 40,000 for distances of more than 1,400 km (e.g. Delhi-Bangalore, Delhi Kolkata)

With corporate world taking a substantial hit following this news, video conferencing has probably become the only solution for the buzzing Indian market for whom a days loss of economy could be in the tune of a few hundred crores.

The Civil Aviation Ministry are at best resorting to coaxing the airline companies to come up with realistic pricing, the fact remains that they have no rights to penalise them for the unfair hike. At the best what DGCA ca do is revoke airlines" licence's.

All the major mobile telephony players in India today provide conferencing facility and has few takers amongst medium-enterprises. With the revised rates, companies and other establishments, should look into the proposition of a net meeting seems a more feasible option.

For fair-priced travel options, explore OneIndia's travel section for competitive rates on (http://travel.oneindia.in/flights )

OneIndia News