Mumbai: Airfares are seasonally low during the monsoon quarter, which is a lean period for travel, but this time, delightfully for customers, they are the lowest in the last several years.
And the good news is that market experts expect the trend to continue, right into the Diwali season and beyond. If you wanted to book a flight to Kolkata from Mumbai, today for tomorrow, it will cost an unbelievable Rs 4,100. Even at their cheapest, flights on this sector were earlier never lower than Rs 7,500. Last minute bookings would have cost more.
Part of the reason for this price crash is that airlines had earlier been charging the earth and driving away customers, and now they are striving to get them back. The other reason is that they are fighting for higher market shares and hoping to dislodge the leader, Indigo, whose slice of the market pie has been steadily growing the last couple of years.
The busiest routes, connecting Mumbai with Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore, have seen the steepest cuts. Of the 700-odd daily movements from Mumbai (including international flights) over 250 are operated to these 5 destinations. Next-day bookings on the Mumbai-Delhi sector that cost Rs 6,000 to Rs 6,500 in 2011 and 2012 during the monsoon quarter, are now available for Rs 4,200. Mumbai-Bangalore, and Mumbai-Chennai flights, that cost Rs 5,000 and Rs 6,000, respectively, are now available at Rs 2,800 and Rs 3,400, respectively. The Mumbai-Hyderabad fare is Rs 2,500, down from the earlier Rs 4,000-4,500 range.
Read News in full 09/08/13 Bipin Kumar Singh/Mumbai Mirror
No comments:
Post a Comment