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Sahara slashes airfares, Spicejet gets HC nod
BY OUR AVIATION CORRESPONDENT
19 July, 2005: NEW DELHI: Air Sahara has decided to take the fare cut war head on. The airline on Tuesday announced the launch of fare buckets, which, it claimed, would lower airfares by 20 to 70 per cent. With this move, Sahara has shelved its advance purchase (APEX) schemes also, Air Sahara's executive vice-president Alok Sharma told reporters.
Sahara calls its new system 'Solar Fares'. Solar fares would do away with curbs on advance purchase and cancellation of APEX tickets.
This effectively means that a passenger can now purchase a ticket for any flight at a discount price if seats on the low fare buckets are available.
Sahara has now come up with seven levels of fares, which includes the normal fare.
The fares in rupees as well as the dollar would come down by 20 to 60 per cent following the launch of fare buckets. The 30-day APEX fare on the Delhi-Bangalore sector was Rs 5,828. Now, the lowest fare bucket on this sector is Rs 3,555.
The Kolkata-Hyderabad sector would witness a drop of 71% in lowest bucket fare than the APEX fare on that route.
Meanwhile, the Delhi High Court quashed SK Modi Group's contentions against relaunching airline operations with ModiLuft, paving the way for Spicejet to begin operations. The High Court approved the scheme of compromise presented by Royal Airways, which now flies under the brand name SpiceJet. It may be recalled that Royal Airways had acquired ModiLuft and the Modi family's stake in the airline.
Royal Airways had apprised the HC about steps taken to relaunch the airline. It had deposited s 9 crore in the HC as per the court's order. Royal also settled the dispute with its various creditors including IOC, HPCL, BPCL and MTNL.
India’s aviation sector is witnessing a boom with analysts foreseeing a 25% growth rate annually. The nation’s airliners had hogged the limelight in Paris air show, placing a slew of orders. Indigo, which is yet to go on air, stunned analysts by placing an order for 100 air craft.
Air India plans to buy 68 air craft, while low budget airline Air Deccan has placed orders for 60. Indian Airlines is eyeing to acquire 43 aircraft. Largest private sector airline Jet Airways has placed orders for 40 aircraft.
Kingfisher, Spicejet and Paramount have placed orders for 33,20 and 5 aircraft respectively.
BY OUR AVIATION CORRESPONDENT
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