ANOTHER PRICE WAR IN AIR

In a bid to cash in on upcoming summer holiday season, low-cost carriers SpiceJet and IndiGo today launched the fourth round of price war in the bleeding aviation sector, offering massive discounts on tickets. The cash-strapped airlines are offering the discounted fares on select routes under 'super Holi sales' and 'flash sales' schemes. While SpiceJet confirmed the new scheme, wherein it is offering tickets as low as Rs 1,999 on select routes and on limited capacity, the offer by the industry leader IndiGo could be not verified. However, travel portals said the latter is offering up to 30 per cent discounts from its "flash sale" for the next five days. Gurgaon-based SpiceJet, announcing its 'Super Holi Sale', said "its fares start at Rs 1,999 (all-inclusive) on select routes for travel between April 14 and June 30 during the five-day sale starting tomorrow through March 16". This is the fourth price war in the aviation sector, where most players are reeling under heavy debt, this year. In the second week of January and twice in February, all the leading airlines had launched cheap fares, slashing fares up to 75 per cent on advance bookings. All the three price wars were initiated by SpiceJet and promptly followed by others like IndiGo, Jet, Air India. "All-inclusive fares start from Rs 1,999 on select routes and flights. Lowest fares are for bookings made 90 days prior to travel, and all bookings under this offer require minimum 30 days advance purchase," SpiceJet said in a late evening statement. Under the offer, one can grab a ticket on the Delhi- Chandigarh sector for Rs 1,999, Hyderabad-Cochin at Rs 2,999, and Amritsar-Mumbai at Rs 3,999 (all-inclusive). SpiceJet has been facing fund crunch for quite some time now, and had posted a net loss of Rs 172 crore in the December quarter. IndiGo numbers are not publicly available as it is privately held. Rajesh Magow, co-founder and CEO of leading travel and hotel booking portal MakeMyTrip.com, said, "SpiceJet and IndiGo today announced 'flash sales' on 30-90 day advance purchase window. With travel-period falling in the summer holiday months, this is a good opportunity for travellers who couldn't get discounted airfares last time. "We expect ticket sales to rise and a few more players to join in as summer holiday travel demand continues to be fuelled by these promotional fares," he said.