Airlines Deals

Jet Airways has brought out all arsenals to combat cut-throat competition in the market for the lean season that sets in from August. The full service carrier, which has seen its market share and profitability dwindle since the arrival of low cost airlines, is repeating its ‘Superfare’ scheme that was on offer in February-March this year.

Under the scheme, Jet is offering one lakh seats on low-load sectors between August 1 and September 30 for fares that are almost as low as those offered by budget carriers such as Air Deccan, GoAir and SpiceJet.

Jet Airways vice-president - marketing, Gurang Shetty says the scheme will boost its load factors in the lean period. “We have a lot of distress inventory, which go light. This scheme will help us dispense off inventory in advance on sectors which need support so that we can move to higher rates closer to the date of the flight,” he explains.

Going by the ads that the legacy carrier has put out in the media, the fares are a steal for the services on offer. For instance, the air ticket price on the Bangalore-Mumbai route starts at Rs 2,625 and for Bangalore-Delhi, it is just Rs 3,775.

Will this lead to migration of passengers from other carriers to Jet?

Jeh Wadia of GoAir is unperturbed. “Absolutely not. Our fares are around 20-35% lower than the Surperfares being offered by Jet. It all depends on when you book you the ticket. If you book the ticket 30 days in advance, our fares are over 60% lower. For instance, their fares on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad route starts at Rs 1,225 while our’s start at Rs 499.”

Terming it as a desperate bid on the part of Jet, Kingfisher Air general manager - sales, Manoj Chacko, says: “We will never go for such ridiculous fares. We believe in offering competitive fares and, since most of our passengers are from the corporate sector, fares don’t swing our loads as much as the need for comfortable travel.”

Analysts say such fares are common during the lean period, and do not rule out pressure of such fares on no-frills airlines.