Airlines to beat lean season via discount route

With an intense battle on for marketshare, domestic airlines are competing among themselves to extend special and concession offers to passengers. Majority of domestic airlines have joined the bandwagon of offering seats at throw away prices, due to lean season.

Full service airline Jet Airways kickstarted the second round of monsoon special fares by offering 10,000 seats under its 'superfares' scheme, subsidising over 40 percent against current fares.

Low cost airlines too joined in with Air Deccan, GoAir, SpiceJet and full service airline Kingfisher Airlines also having joined the league. However, industry analysts say concessional pricing is not sustainable for airlines as their yields are under tremendous pressure.

"These freebies are likely to end by September. With the season picking up, airlines will wind up promotional offers," analysts cautioned.

After offering superfares, Jet Airways has now offered special fares to destinations of Kerala on account of Onam, a harvest festival of the state.

Adopting a different marketing strategy, Kingfisher Airlines has introduced a new scheme, Miles Of Chill Times, offering all passengers who fly five one-way trips by airline can avail a free one-way ticket on Kingfisher Class.

A passenger can also issue the free ticket in anybody's name. Also, if the passenger is also a King Club member, then he stands to earn King Miles for the five paid sectors plus a bonus of 20 percent King Miles.The airline has also offered a return ticket for first class travellers at special fares.

Not to be outdone, Air Deccan is also offering two lakh low fare tickets for journey in August starting at Rs 499. In addition, it is offering free tickets for its frequent fliers.

This special offering entails its frequent flyers to get up to two free tickets. The scheme is valid is up to September 30 and free tickets can be redeemed by travellers till October 30.

As per the scheme, for every five paid tickets flown during the period, the passenger will get one ticket free and for every nine paid tickets, he will get two tickets free. The passenger can either travel himself or sponsor someone also for travel.

SpiceJet has also announced 50,000 promotional seats for fares starting Rs 999 during August - September. This will be available on the SpiceJet network spanning across 49 daily flights covering 12 cities.

Meanwhile, GoAir has hit market with new offering of 50,000 tickets at special fares starting from Rs 525. These promotional fares will be available to passengers travelling up to December 14. These fares will be applicable to both the existing and the new sectors that will be launched in the coming month.

Delhi-based IndiGo, which is yet to be launched, is also offering special fares such as Rs 2,549 for Delhi-Guwahati, Rs 3,598 for Delhi-Imphal and Guwahati-Imphal for Rs 1,028.

These routes will be operated from August 4. Other sectors including Delhi-Bangalore, Delhi-Pune and Bangalore-Pune will start from August 10 with low-fare offers.