Air Deccan offers 500,000 tickets free

Mumbai: Air Deccan, India''s second largest airline will offer 500, 000 tickets priced at Rs0 (plus taxes and surcharge) on the occasion of the New Year. The tickets will be available for sale across all sectors and all its 350 flights for travel between July 1, and October 27, 2007.

Bookings for these tickets will open on the morning of April 14, at 8:00 am. The airline also announced opening of regular bookings across all flights and sectors for travel between July 1, 2007 and October 27, 2007 on the same day, the n o-frills airline said in a press release.

All new tickets booked on and after April 14, 2007 will not be refundable. The tickets can however be rescheduled to another date, flight or sector, Air Deccan said.

The new cancellation policy will available in the "terms & conditions" section on the Air Deccan website www.airdeccan.net from April 14 onwards.

"We have the widest destination network in India and our aim is to cater to every traveller within the country. We were the first to release Rs500 and Re1 tickets and this time we have taken a step forward by releasing "free" tickets for the first time in the history of the airline. We believe this will assist us in reaching closer to our vision of making flying common in India. The idea is to encourage and stimulate travel even during lean seasons. An average load factor of 80 per cent over the last 6 months is a witness to the fact that we have been able to maintain a healthy balance between peak and non-peak seasons," Samyukth Sridharan, chief revenue officer and head marketing, Air Deccan, said

Air Deccan, India''s fastest growing low-cost airline and the second largest airline in the country, with a market share of 21.7 per cent (February 2007) Air Deccan has the largest network in India today covering 64 airports, plying over 350 flights a day. The airline currently operates a brand new fleet of 19 Airbus A-320 aircraft, with an average age of 1.5 years and 24 ATR Turboprop aircraft. Since its inception in August 2003, Air Deccan has carried over 9 million passengers and the numbers are growing everyday. The airline has recorded an on time performance of (within 1 hour) of 98.65 per cent for March 2007.