2005

While fares to destinations in Europe and southeast Asia have been slashed to nearly half in some cases. Myanmar Airlines, for instance, is offering return tickets to Bangkok for as low at Rs 7,999 which is, incidentally, lower than a one-way fare on the Delhi-Bangalore route.

Besides, British airways, Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines, Sri Lankan Airlines and A-I have cut fares to various destinations across southeast Asia and Europe.

The dropping fares, industry insiders said, are a fallout of the increased seat availability between India and the world. "Seat availability on most global routes from India are nearly double year-on-year this summer. This increased competition would surely reflect on the fares," an analyst said.

With India now in negotiations to improve air links with China, France and the US, the coming year would see connectivity to these destinations improving and fares sliding down, Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation senior V-P Kapil Kaul said.

This fresh round of fare cuts was initiated by BA, which cut fares to London to Rs 10,000 under a special scheme. Singapore Airlines (SIA) also announced special schemes offering discounted tickets to Bangkok, Hong Kong, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. Both the schemes have been timed to match the launch of services to these routes by Jet and Sahara, industry observers said.

SIA is offering return tickets to Singapore and Kuala Lumpur for Rs 13,100 for travel between March 1 and April 30. Besides, return fares to Bangkok and Hong Kong have been cut to Rs 16,500 and Rs 17,500 respectively under the scheme. Sri Lankan Airlines have cut by half the fares from India to London, Paris, Zurich, Singapore, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur and Male.

Several new airlines led by Air Arabia are also planning to start services to India in the coming months.