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  • Posted: Fri, Sep 5 2008. 12:19 AM IST

Air India, Jet Airways cut fares on London sector

International carriers too pare fares by Rs10,000-12,000; move comes a day after Kingfisher Airlines Ltd launched its first overseas service between Bangalore and the UK capital

Tarun Shukla and P.R. Sanjai

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New Delhi/Mumbai: National Aviation Co. of India Ltd-run Air India, Jet Airways (India) Ltd and international carriers have cut fares of London flights by Rs10,000 to Rs12,000, a day after Kingfisher Airlines Ltd, merging with Deccan Aviation Ltd, launched its first overseas service between Bangalore and the UK capital.

British Airways Plc. reduced fares on Tuesday for its flights from India to London. Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd also has decided to reduce fares on its UK flights, travel firms said.

Fare war: An Air India plane at IGI Airport in New Delhi. The carrier has cut prices only for economy-class fliers to London. Harikrishna Katragadda / Mint

Fare war: An Air India plane at IGI Airport in New Delhi. The carrier has cut prices only for economy-class fliers to London. Harikrishna Katragadda / Mint

According to them, a return trip from Indian cities to London will now cost around Rs35,000 that includes Rs25,000 in taxes. The fare was some Rs48,000 that included Rs22,000 in taxes a few days ago.

“In a competitive environment, with new capacity being added and fares being lowered, we have responded to the marketplace,” said Air India spokesman Jitender Bhargava. Air India flies to London from New Delhi and Mumbai and routes some of these flights to New York.

Air India said it has cut prices only for economy-class fliers to London.

An official at online travel firm Makemytrip (India) Pvt. Ltd said Kingfisher is matching the reduction in fares by other carriers. “The fares going down (so drastically) at this time is basically welcoming Kingfisher to London,” said Sanjeev Bhasin, assistant vice-president at Makemytrip.

A travel agent said the reductions may force West Asian carriers—which often offer the cheapest fares on one-stop flights to London—to follow suit.

“Now that airlines operating directly to the UK have slashed the fares, other carriers operating to London through their hubs such as Dubai or Doha will also participate in this fare war,” said another travel agent. Both agents did not want to be named.

Other airlines connecting the UK from India include Emirates, Qatar Airways, Swiss International Air Lines, Air France-KLM and Lufthansa.

tarun.s@livemint.com

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Prashant Said:


Its Sabotage, Air India has not yet taken delivery of its new planes where in only 8 777's have been delivered so far used on the Paris-Newark route and London terminators after cancelling the London JFk flight had to compete with Jet Airways for the same market share? How do you differntiate products when there is no competition? Praful Patel has opened the entire market for Jet and they operate only profitable routes via a single hub via Brussels. Air India should have been allowed to retain the gulf sector route monopoly until such time they got their 777 and 777 delieveries to compete with Jet and have a comparable product. Mckinsey as consultants during a study said all Air India needs to stay viable is Have daily shuttle services all Economy class from Mumbai Hyderabad and Calicut via Thiruanthapuram to jeddah Riyadh and Dammam. Sadly instead of Air India implementing this it is being done by Jet when they are already profitable on all their international routes except London I believe. New Planes freebies as startup promotions and a strong brand image against 20 year old planes which have last minute technical snags, service procedures which date back to the 70's and cutlery which make you not want to eat inspite of Air India having good food? When new planes were being purchased from Boeing why didnt they send their pilots who were on the A-310 when they were all being converted to freighters for a 777 conversion? so today the ground situation is pilots starting their training when new planes are delivered and not flying!!! Sabotage- ask the minister Ideally why hasnt any one from the press, the Left front, the opposition or even the Unions questioned the minister? Competition is a must in todays markets and the consumer must I repeat must have a right to choose but under what circumstances of killing the Maharaja our National Carrier at the cost of what shutting down a tri weekly full choc-o-bloc Frankfurt Los Angeles flights

Posted On 10/4/2008 8:42:43 PM
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