International airlines drop fares by up to 30 per cent for festive season
08 Oct 2008
New Delhi: International airfares are set to drop between Rs2,400 and Rs14,000 on different sectors, even though domestic airfares continue to stay at high levels.
International carriers such as Thai Airways , Emirates, Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines, British Airways and flag carrier Air India are reported to be looking at passing on the benefit of reduced jet fuel prices to customers. However, according to some media reports, Air India chairman and managing director Raghu Menon has ruled out a downward price revision with addressing the media a day ago at Hyderabad.
International airlines have revised their fares and surcharges, which has resulted in lower air fares by 10-30 per cent for the coming festive season.
Thai Airways has dropped fares by Rs2,100 - Rs5,300 on the Delhi-Bangkok and Delhi-Ho Chi Minh routes, following a 10 per cent reduction in fuel surcharge applicable from 1 October. Sources say that the airline could be looking at dropping the fuel surcharge by another 10 per cent in the coming weeks with a view to beef up its load factors from India.
Emirates, the Dubai-based premium carrier has also reduced fares in the economy and business class by seven to 35 per cent on its Delhi-Dubai and Delhi-Dubai-London sectors, with airline officials saying that these special fares are available to travelers till 30 November to allow it to cash in on the festive season.
German carrier Lufthansa has dropped its fuel surcharge by $100 (around Rs4,600) to $320 from the earlier $420 for passengers on intercontinental flights in the same journey.
British Airways has also cut fares by 35 per cent on all its flights from India to London.
On the domestic scene, despite jet fuel prices coming down by 21 per cent over the past two months, Jet Airways is reported to be mulling a fare hike of around 10 per cent, while rival Kingfisher Airlines too has scrapped all discounted fares from 1 October.
