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Good news for travelers flying to New York. After getting poor response for its debut flight, Air India is now slashing fares to attract customers. The new rates will kick in from September 1st. By slashing rates, Air India is trying hard to woo customers so that they break their loyalty to its rival brands. The AI non-stop Mumbai—New York flight that was launched with much fanfare, has so far failed to make an impact. Though the flight promises world-class comforts in a spanking new Boeing 777-200 LR, customers don’t want to give it a try.
Starting September, the airline is slashing its economy class fares. An economy class ticket will now cost Rs 38,000 ($950) plus taxes, which is down from the earlier Rs 52,000 ($1,300). S Venkat ED, Finance, Air India said, “As far as economy fares are concerned, from first September we will slash rates to Rs 38,000 plus taxes and fuel surcharge. But for business and first class we have maintained the old prices.”
Air India's first US flight attracted only 80 passengers compared to its competitor Jet Airways, whose maiden flight was house full.
LAXDESI From United States of America, joined May 2005, 5085 posts, RR: 48 Reply 3, posted (5 years 8 months 4 weeks 1 day 15 hours ago) and read 5977 times:
Is this new fare in economy the same as the fare on AI's one-stop BOM-LHR-JFK flight? Does anyone know? It seems to me that they could realize more than $950 by selling most seats on one-stop as BOM-LHR leg, and LHR-JFK leg.
Good for travellers, bad for Air India. With ever increasing competition on the run, safe to assume that all carriers operating are going to take a revenue hit.
Aerofan From United States of America, joined Aug 2004, 1515 posts, RR: 2 Reply 5, posted (5 years 8 months 4 weeks 1 day 12 hours ago) and read 5558 times:
Who cares about Y fares?..........
Are they slashing the premium cabin fares as well?
PNQIAD From India, joined May 2006, 579 posts, RR: 0 Reply 8, posted (5 years 8 months 4 weeks 1 day 11 hours ago) and read 5435 times:
I personally feel duplicating BOM-JFK in addition to existing 1-stop via LHR with the new non-stop was a bad move to begin with. A bit of out of the box thinking, a code share with UA / other *A members and a non-stop from a new station with no non-stop competition like IAD may have fared much better. This could have brought enough feed from UA, Washington DC metro area traffic to BOM/DEL + a lot of 1-stop opportunities for smaller Indian stations from IAD.
It is surprising indeed that AI, 9W are leaving IAD to others and entering NYC market which has plenty of 1-stop and non-stop competition.
LAXDESI From United States of America, joined May 2005, 5085 posts, RR: 48 Reply 10, posted (5 years 8 months 4 weeks 1 day 3 hours ago) and read 4951 times:
Quoting PNQIAD (Reply 8): I personally feel duplicating BOM-JFK in addition to existing 1-stop via LHR with the new non-stop was a bad move to begin with.
I agree. How about changing the BOM-LHR-JFK flight to BOM-LHR-IAD?
Aerofan From United States of America, joined Aug 2004, 1515 posts, RR: 2 Reply 11, posted (5 years 8 months 4 weeks 1 day 3 hours ago) and read 4934 times:
Thanks for the info Feroze.
I guess I will wait until the premium fares are slashed as well. I just wish airlines would shut the hell up if they are not slashing the fares across all cabins.
LAXDESI From United States of America, joined May 2005, 5085 posts, RR: 48 Reply 12, posted (5 years 8 months 4 weeks 1 day 2 hours ago) and read 4910 times:
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Fare war in the air: Fly to US and back @Rs 26k (US $650).
Travel to the Big Apple just got cheaper, with a fare war breaking out among airlines flying the Mumbai-New York route. US carrier Delta rocked the boat on Friday with a new basic economy class fare of Rs 26,050 for a Mum-NY-Mum ticket.
Continental Airlines, which starts operations on October 2, will also offer the same fare on the Mum-Newark-Mum sector. Both carriers offer non-stop flights on the route. Other players like Air India, Jet Airways, British Airways and Lufthansa are likely to follow suit with new fares to compete with the US carriers, travel industry sources said.
The offer is valid for outbound travel from October to November 15, though the return leg of leg of the journey can be completed up to a year later.
The current offer is for tickets to be booked before the end of the month, but travel agents here said this is likely to be extended with more offers from competition. The basic fares have a build up of fuel surcharge and assorted taxes, added to them. These range between Rs 10,000 to Rs 20,000 depending on the airline chosen (see chart).
The non-stop operators had originally decided to price their flights at a premium to to those via Europe. However, the new fares announced by Delta and Continental are significantly lower than those offered by the European carriers. Traffic between India and the US has been growing at about 30% in the last one year, says Ankur Bhatia, managing director of Amadeus India.
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