Indian Airlines has come out with an even more liberalised "Easy Fares"scheme. Basically these are discounted fares based on a continuous monitoring of capacity, but with none of the restrictions of an APEX fare. This move is outright taking on of Deccan (as well as Spice Jet). No interlining in case of flight disruptions, but they do promise you a seat on their next available flight (considering that Deccan operates 2 flights on BOM-DEL while Indian Airlines operates 10, you can see the difference). The interesting thing is that when I tried for a last day fare, some of the Indian Airlines flights were just 50 Rs costlier than Deccan for BOM-DEL. And remember - this is a full service carrier. Looks like it is getting to be an American vs Peoples Express saga replayed here.
Some other facts.
Both Indian Airlines and Jet are agressively targetting Deccan, Spice et all. In many cases, last minute fares are almost as cheap as Deccan as I already explained - plus the food is good (and free as well). Indian Airlines uses SATS which has a tie up with Taj group, Jet uses among others LSG Sky Chef. And yes sir, I do like to get a free meal for a 2 hour sector, esp if if I am paying more or less the same amount as for the lo-co!
Both the majors are sprucing up on customer service as well. Jet has been always good on that and IC has been steadily improving. My early morning flight today for 6 AM on Indian Airlines was rescheduled sometime the previous evening to 8 AM. I was informed on the phone by Indian Airlines last night itself, and yes I did appreciate the fact that thanks to being informed well on time, I didnt have to get up at an unearthly hour and end up twiddling my thumbs watching the airport cleaners at work! Not suggesting that the loco airlines dont do this, but having travelled Indian Airlines for the last 12 odd years regularly, they seem to be getting only better and better.
Lowering fares even more sounds good - but then how can people like DN survive eventually? Foreign pilots are expensive, and with more and more trained guys leaving, your training costs go high as well. Fuel costs havent come down much, and there are not likely to be any Brussells South or Frankfurt Hahns anytime soon in India! 95 % load factor sounds good, Re 1 /Rs 500 fares for the common man sound even better, but in the end where is your money coming from with costs spiralling up and up?
No wonder Spice is not talking about the 99Rs fare nowadays. They wanted to make an impact, achieved the same , annouced the fares were sold out in no time and then went about their business with sensible fares.
Business traffic wont touch DN- and finally they seem to be realising that with talks of a shuttle between MAA-BLR- HYD. But then others wont sit quiet either, already Jet has 4 flights on MAA BLR route between 6 AM and 12 noon, and the Indian Airlines lady at the top has informed through the latest copy of the inflight magazine that in winter, they are also going to increase capacity in domestic routes (they already have in key routes like BOM DEL). That way KF and Spice seem to have a better plan - atleast they have twice daily flights at sensible times (and not 11 AM and 3 PM arrivals) on most of their routes. Speaking of routes as well, KF serves 2 with 2 planes and even Spice seems to be concentrating on the frequency aspect .
Last edited by rsoman; 17th Jul 2005 at 12:37.