Air Deccan slashes fares by 20 per cent

Hyderabad: Just when Jet Airways and Air Sahara are planning to hike fares by 10 per cent to meet increased costs, Air Deccan, the Bangalore-based no-frills price warrior, has announced a 20 per cent fare reduction on its long-haul sectors. Incidentally, the airline is already offering fares that are almost 55 per cent lower than that offered by other airlines.

The new 'last day' fare for the Bangalore-Delhi sector is Rs 5,200, a reduction of Rs 1,400 from the old fare of Rs6, 600. The new fares for Bangalore-Mumbai is Rs 3,400 against Rs 4,400 charged earlier, Mumbai-Delhi is Rs 3,400 (Rs 4,400), Delhi-Hyderabad Rs 4,000 (Rs 5,700), Delhi-Chennai Rs 4,500 (Rs 6,600) and Delhi-Guwahati Rs 4,200 (Rs 5,600).

The logic, according to Capt. GR Gopinath, managing director of Air Deccan, is that with the decrease in fares there will be a corresponding increase in the number of passengers which will offset the cost of the increase in cost of air turbine fuel. Gopinath feels that as Air Deccan augments its fleet capacity in the coming days it would lead to a further reduction in fares. Curently, Air Deccan operates out of 22 airports in the country.