The Hindu Business Line : `Apex fares are here to stay'

The state-owned Indian Airlines (IA), which has the largest air connectivity within the country, has no plans of withdrawing the lower level fares, popularly called Apex fares, from the market.

"My own impression is that the Apex fares, in one form or another are here to stay. Similarly the time bound schemes are likely to keep coming and going," IA's Chairman and Managing Director, Mr Sunil Arora, told Business Line.

The airline CMD pointed out that while there were certain levels of discounts such as senior citizens discounts that do not have a limit there were other schemes which are offered from time to time depending on the seasonality.

IA, which links 160 city pairs within the country, offers the seven-day, 21 days and 28 days Apex fares on several routes. The Apex fares offer passengers substantial saving when the booking is made at least seven, 21 or 28 days before travel. A passenger travelling between Delhi-Bangalore and making the booking at least 28 days before starting the journey would be charged Rs 3,830 instead of the regular fare of Rs 11,455 for a one-way ticket.

Besides, the airline also has a variety of other schemes such as metro and non-metro and position fare schemes, which were adopted by IA during the lean season and offer lower fares.

The airline looked at launching various promotional schemes as a measure of ensuring better yield management as the seat, which is a perishable commodity, may have gone empty if such promotional schemes were not on offer, officials said.

However, the airline does not feel that the various schemes on offer have impacted Indian Railways in a major way. "There could be some impact of these schemes on the high end users of the railways. But otherwise it is difficult to say that the domestic airlines have made any dent on the railways. There is just no comparison between the reach of the railways and an airline," Mr Arora pointed out.