The Hindu Business Line : AI lures travellers with discounts on domestic night fares

With domestic airfares creeping up, Air India has re-launched domestic night fares which offer a discount of 25 per cent on what is charged for flying on the same sector during the day.

To avail oneself of the lower fares, which are available for a one-way or return journey in economy class, a passenger will have to travel on flights operated between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. Currently, most full service airlines such as Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines do not operate flights so late in the night although low-cost airlines such as SpiceJet start their operations around 5 a.m.

“The discount is being offered as the flights are the domestic leg of an international flight, which is to say that the aircraft might be operating a Mumbai-Chennai-Gulf sector flight, which gives us the opportunity to fly people between Mumbai and Chennai before picking up more onward international passengers.

But these flights open up a host of opportunities for passengers from Mumbai wanting to travel to Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Kolkata among others. From Delhi, apart from connections to various metros at lower rates, passengers can also connect to Amritsar and some other smaller towns,” sources said.

Restrictions

The lower fares have certain restrictions, includingRs 500 penalty every time a passenger changes travel date from what had been booked originally. This is among the initiatives which have been taken postmerger of Air India and Indian.

The airline is looking at the re-launch of night fares as an opportunity to take on competition from other full service airlines. “Jet Airways has JetLite while Kingfisher Airlines offers a cheaper alternative in Simplyfly Deccan. The night flight can be looked at as an attempt by Air India to tap a growing section of travellers which is willing to pay a bit extra for flying in comparative luxury and comfort,” said a senior AI official.

Air India withdrew the scheme some months ago as domestic airfares of private airlines were at an all-time low and it did not make commercial sense to match them. In June, the industry decided to raise the basic fares and charge a minimum of Rs 1,000 for distances of up to 750 km and Rs 3,000 for longer distances.

The move to increase domestic airfares offered Air India an opportunity to re-launch the reduced night fares and thereby, tap a new revenue stream even as it increased domestic day time fares to Rs 3,200 for Delhi-Chennai and Rs 3,250 for Delhi-Hyderabad.