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Kingfisher Airlines is offering cheaper flying options for those planning to travel over the upcoming long week-end.
Last-minute travellers too can take advantage of the fares though they comes with some risks.
“Kingfisher is offering a value-for-money option for the long week-end ahead. Customers travelling with families stand to save substantially,” said Noel Swain, Executive Vice-President, Supplier Relations, Cleartrip.
The cash-strapped airline is offering a Delhi-Mumbai return ticket for about Rs 13,500, which is about Rs 1,200 cheaper than other airlines. Similarly a Delhi-Bangalore-Delhi ticket is priced at about Rs 14,800 on Kingfisher while the next cheapest flight is available at about Rs 15,700.
Noel Swain points out that the airline’s pricing strategy could be part of an attempt to “win back” customer confidence.
Sanjay Bhasin, Managing Director, goibibio.com, said it was noticed that travellers usually buy Kingfisher tickets when they had immediate travel plans. “Despite cheaper fares, those with travel plans do not prefer Kingfisher as they do not want to face sudden cancellations,” he added.
The airline has seen its fleet dip to 20 aircraft from over 63 in January. This means the airline is now operating only 100 flights a day from over 400 in January.
Risks involved
Some travel agents, however, warn that there could be some perils of travelling with Kingfisher. Given the airline’s depleted fleet and pilots going on strike off and on, flyers will only know at the last minute if a flight will take off. They cite the example of the recent agitation by the airline’s engineers and pilots that led to over 50 of the 200 flights getting cancelled over two days.
However, there seem to be enough flyers willing to take the risk. Kingfisher is a hit with passengers booking flights on travel portals. For example, in June it had a share of 5.5 per cent of all the tickets sold on the Web site Cleartrip. In comparison, the Director-General of Civil Aviation data show that the airline had a market share of 4.2 per cent.
>ashwini.phadnis@thehindu.co.in
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