Airlines Deals

YOUR cellphone has just doubled up as your personal travel agent, enabling you to search for and book the cheapest available air tickets on the move, thanks to Flight Raja.

This Bangalore-based company is all set to revolutionise air travel—after its official launch on Friday—because of its mobile flight reservation service.

‘‘We offer all domestic airlines, available to the entire nation on a single SMS and provide instant ticketing, a first for India,’’ said Harsh Azad, director (Mobile), Flight Raja.

The simple, four-step procedure to fly through mobile (see box) took the team six months to execute and has seen an investment of ‘‘roughly a quarter million US dollars,’’ Azad added.

‘‘Payments can be made both by credit card and cash. We have tied up with UTI and SBI banks for the latter,’’ said Amit Aggarwal, director (Kiosk).

Clearly, the success mantra for the venture will be the ability to penetrate the 100 million-strong mobile market in India.

Currently, among the domestic carriers, individual airlines like Indian, Air Deccan and IndiGo have options for mobile bookings. While Indian’s is restricted to Reliance customers, Air Deccan requires one to register before availing the service and IndiGo offers bookings only on GPRS-enabled phones.

Meanwhile, Air Sahara, SpiceJet, Kingfisher and GoAir have no plans for launching similar services in the near future, their spokespersons confirmed.

Industry watchers say that in such a scenario, this will be a one-stop shop for travellers because of easy accessibility and having the cheapest options across airlines listed for you at your fingertips.

In four steps
Step 1: Search for the cheapest airfares. SMS Fly, first three letters of originating city, first three letters of destination city, date of flying to 4242 and receive list of cheapest air tickets (e.g. Fly Del Mum 28 July)
Step 2: SMS Fly Book to book
Step 3: A customer care representative will call back to complete the booking
Step 4: The PNR number is delivered via SMS and you can collect the e-ticket from the airport counter or print it online