Airlines in fare war again, seats cheaper by up to 75%

Low-cost carrier SpiceJet today triggered a third round of fare war by cutting ticket prices by a massive 75 per cent, a move which was soon followed by its rivals GoAir and IndiGo.

This is the third time in last one month that the Kalanithi Maran-promoted carrier has doled out enticing fares to customers, forcing the rivals to ape the move.

"Super Summer Sale' offers up to 75 per cent off base fare plus fuel surcharge relative to last minute fares, for travel between April 1 and June 30," SpiceJet said while announcing the scheme.

This offer comes after the "overwhelming" success of the earlier two similar schemes and aims at making those seats available to passengers at highly discounted advance purchase rates which would otherwise go empty, it said.

In mid-January, soon after the festive season came to an end, SpiceJet had triggered a fare war by offering up to 50 per cent discounts and subsequently 30 per cent discounts on tickets, which was followed by other carriers too.

"We received overwhelming positive feedback from customers who booked the earlier `Super Sales' for taking the lead in making air travel more affordable not only for frequent travellers but also those who intend to take journey from other modes," SpiceJet COO Sanjiv Kapoor said.

These offers are a win-win for customers, airlines and for the travel industry as well, he said.

Following suit, GoAir announced up to 70 per cent reduction in fares for booking in the next three days, starting Monday, while IndiGo came out with discounted tickets on select sectors.

"SpiceJet and IndiGo are providing discounts on their summer fares to stimulate the market and leverage advance bookings for the upcoming holiday season. SpiceJet has launched a three-day sale with discounts ranging from 35 per cent to 75 per cent on current fares across sectors between the 1st of April and the 30th of June.

"We are already seeing strong demand on the key leisure destinations like Goa, Kerala, etc. and bookings have more than doubled post the announcement," travel portal Yatra.com President Sharat Dhall said.

SpiceJet, facing fund crunch for quite some time now, posted a net loss of Rs 172 crore in the December quarter.