For today only, value airline JetBlue Airways is offering seats on sale for just $14 each way on non-stop flights between San Francisco International Airport and both New York City/JFK and Los Angeles/Long Beach for travel from today through April 8, 2009.

The $14 fares to/from San Francisco are available until 11:59 p.m. MDT today, April 2, 2009, or until availability is gone, whichever is first. Travel must take place between April 2, 2009 and April 8, 2009. Full details are available here.

All I can say is huh?!?!?! Most major U.S. airlines charge more than $14 to just check in a bag!!! If I recall correctly, on JetBlue, the first checked bag is still free.

SpiceJet announced reduction of up to Rs. 600 per ticket on its already low fares, for all bookings made for 30 or more days in advance, across all its 119 flights in the new summer schedule.

The airline's Chief Commercial Officer Samyukth Sridharan claimed the fares will be comparable to IInd AC train fares. Clearly SpiceJet is targeting the summer family holiday passengers.

Did we not have an airline try this strategy before ? Ah.... yes, Air Deccan.

SpiceJet has announced the return of its successful promotion scheme “Book for 2 pay for 1”.



This scheme is valid for bookings made from March 4 to 6, 2009 and only for bookings made through the SpiceJet website. There are conditions attached to this scheme.

SpiceJet in a bid to compete in the business segment with fellow low cost carrier IndiGo has announced some features:

• Passengers can buy hot coffee or tea with cookies for only Rs 20.
• Busy travellers can now collect their boarding passes for return flight, at the time of check in, provided they are coming back on the same day.
• Guests who land after travelling via an International airline, do not need to spend extra, to carry their “two bags”, while they fly with SpiceJet on domestic sectors
• Music is played as passenger boards and deplanes. This has been composed in-house by SpiceJet employee Moin Wasil.

Fellow low cost carrier IndiGo, has introduced special "all-inclusive" fares of Rs 1,600 and Rs 2,600 for journeys below and above 750 km. The over 750km Rs. 2,600 fare is attractive since, for example, for a Delhi-Mumbai flight the average full fare tickets cost Rs 5,500 or higher. For more details visit the IndiGo website.

Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL) today lowered business and leisure fares in domestic markets served from its Cincinnati hub. The reductions offer more than 80 percent of customers flying to or from Cincinnati a significant savings on advance-purchase leisure and business fares to the hub’s most popular destinations, including select cities in Florida, the Northeast and along the West coast.

Sample reductions, effective immediately, include:

Market	Previous 21-day advance-purchase fare**	Reduction	New sample 21-day advance-purchase fare**
Charleston, S.C.	$185 one-way*	56%	$82 one-way*
St. Louis	$180 one-way*	53%	$84 one-way*
Philadelphia	$149 one-way*	38%	$92 one-way*
Los Angeles	$310 one-way*	58%	$130 one-way*
Boston	$205 one-way*	26%	$152 one-way*
Hartford, Conn.	$180 one-way*	12%	$159 one-way*
Seattle	$305 one-way*	43%	$173 one-way*
Salt Lake City	$270 one-way*	20%	$217 one-way*

*One-way, based on a round-trip purchase. Additional taxes/fees/restrictions/baggage charges may apply.
**Comparison based on published fares as of Jan. 27, 2009 for the same travel period.

This new pricing structure is not a sale and applies to both leisure- and business-oriented travel. In addition to reductions on the lowest available fares, customers also will see reductions on other advance purchase and walk-up fares.

Visit Delta website for full terms, conditions and details.

All airlines in India have been slashing their fares since January. The sheer numbers of special offers, and schemes coming across my desk have overwhelmed me.

However, these appear to be coming to an end.

Despite a drastic cut in fares of nearly 50 per cent for full service airlines and over 40 per cent on low cost carriers the demand is still not picking up sufficiently to offset the reductions. At some of the current special fares levels, passenger load factors would have be greater than 100 per cent, which is simply not sustainable. Add to this, that March onwards the traffic naturally starts picking up.

Airlines have started complaining to the government about the "unrealistic fares".

So if you are planning to buy some tickets, do it right away.

SpiceJet CEO, Sanjay Aggarwal's interview with CNBC-TV18, gives us some clues on how airlines think.

Q: At a time when the industry is reeling under huge losses, should fares be a lot more disciplined in terms of getting into this aggressive price war?

A: The question is what they should be and what they are? Right now it is a competitive environment and there are competitive pressures. Even though we would like to keep fares higher, we have to stay in line with what the other carriers are doing and right now the fares are low and I think these are unsustainable fares. Some of the viewers who are looking at buying air tickets; they should do it sooner than later. In the near future I see fares going up.

Q: Have you seen any sort of a volume pick up post your decision to slash fares and has that at all offset the kind of losses that you’ve been sitting on?

A: First of all – have we seen pick up in demand? The answer is yes we have but not sufficient to offset the revenue loss. So for example the fares have come down 40-50% however the load factors have not gone up and the current fares, it will take us more than 100% load factors to break-even. So when I talk about these fears being unsustainable, it is not just we need to get 5-10% more load factors, it is just unrealistic. The second piece being, should we be more disciplined? Of course we should be. So we will see where the market goes but as I said my guess is the next few weeks, the fares should begin to move up.

See the complete interview video.

Jet Airways has announced a basket of special deals on its international flights. Remember all fares mentioned herein are exclusive of surcharge and taxes.

Mumbai/Delhi/Chennai/Kolkata – Singapore/Hong Kong/Bangkok

Companion Free Offer on Premiére (business class)
Jet Airways’ international Premiére customers travelling to Singapore and Hong Kong can now avail of exciting Companion Free travel offers.

A Mumbai – Singapore Premiére return fare is available for two persons travelling together for a sum of INR 1,01,250. Hong Kong is INR 94,500, Bangkok is INR 57,065.

Jet also has Delhi – Bangkok, Delhi - Singapore, Chennai - Singapore, Chennai – Kuala Lumpur, and Kolkata – Bangkok sectors.

Special offers for individual travel
Premiére class return fare of INR 54,000 for Mumbai - Hong Kong.

Economy class return fare of INR 7,480 for travel between Mumbai – Singapore, INR 12,635 for Mumbai – Singapore, INR 9,750 Mumbai - Bangkok.

Mumbai/Delhi – London Heathrow

Special offers for individual travel
India and London Heathrow, a special return Premiére fare of INR 85,000 for a 14 day Advance Purchase or APEX. Economy class fares start at INR 15,990.

Double JPMiles
Jet Airways JetPrivilege members travelling on Mumbai/Delhi - London return sectors can earn Double JPMiles until January 15, 2009. This is applicable on First Class, Premiére and Economy class travel.

Mumbai – New York (Newark / JFK)

Special offer for individual travel
Mumbai - New York (Newark / JFK) Economy class return fare of INR 32,600.

For further information and sales and travel validity, customers may visit www.jetairways.com, or contact their nearest travel agent, or call the reservations number (city code) 3989-3333, or call Toll free on 1800-22-55-22.

National airline, Air India, followed lead of its two private sector competitors Jet Airways and Kingfisher, and today, slashed its basic air fares in the domestic sectors ranging from 35 per cent to 82 per cent as per PTI.

The fare cut was effective from 1500 hours today, an Air India spokesperson said.

The maximum reduction in fares was 82 per cent on the Chennai-Bangalore route, while on Mumbai-Kolkata route, the reduction would be 35 per cent, Air India said. The basic fare for travel between Mumbai and Delhi now stands reduced by 49 per cent.

While Jet Airways and Air India have revealed their cards in terms of reductions, Kingfisher is yet to take a decision on the quantum of the cut, having only announced a reduction.

In other related developments, civil aviation minister Mr. Praful Patel has just released a bombshell. Apparently the government has decided not to bail out Air India. As per an article in Travel Biz Monitor,

The Central government yesterday ruled out any bailout package for National Aviation Company of India Ltd (NACIL), which runs the country's flagship carrier Air India, but said it could be given the benefit of duty cuts, said an IANS report. “The government will not provide any bailout package for NACIL. There will not be any direct financial assistance, but help in other forms like reducing duties is being done,” said Minister of Civil Aviation Praful Patel, on the sidelines of the foundation stone-laying ceremony of the Kolkata Airport upgrade in the city. NACIL recently projected a loss of Rs.21.56 billion for the current fiscal.

The Company had sought a bailout package of Rs 23.5 billion to help it tide over the shortfall. The airline is also in a financial squeeze due its ambitious plans to upgrade its fleet with an investment of Rs 440-billion with a limited equity base of Rs 1.45 billion. Faced with the acute funds crunch, NACIL approached the Ministry of Civil Aviation with a proposal for equity infusion of Rs 13.5 billion and Rs ten billion as soft loan

I find this hard to accept. Air India owes money by the bucket load to airport operators and oil companies, and to other vendors. By the minister's own admissions on the floor of the Parliament, Air India is by far the biggest defaulter to airport operators. Without the bailout package, there is no way on God's green Earth that Air India can pay back its creditors.

It appears this is going to become another case of passing on Air India's burden to the state owned Airports Authority of India, and to the oil companies ?

The government cannot have it both ways. Either it should stop interfering in Air India operations and sell off the airline, or then play the role of sugar-daddy.

Following the announcement by alliance partner, Kingfisher, Jet Airways, announced "substantial" reduction in basic fares on Economy class, on all its domestic flights with immediate effect.

The special fares are lowered by as much as 40%, but fuel surcharges remain high.

The economy class basic fares will be as low as Mumbai – Delhi INR 2,000; Mumbai – Kolkata INR 4,065; Bengaluru – Mumbai INR 1,220; and Mumbai – Ahmedabad INR 500.

The normal chestnuts of Terms and conditions apply.

For further information, customers can contact the airline call centre on (city code) 39893333, or the toll free number 1-800-22-55-22, or visit the Jet Airways website.

Similar fare reductions have been announced by Jet Airways' low cost subsidiary JetLite. For more information visit JetLite website.

Singapore Airlines has announced a new low fare sale from India to select destinations in South East Asia and Australia.

As per the ad in today's Times of India, Bangalore edition, the fares round-trip ex-Bangalore to Singapore is INR 16,830, Denpasar/Bali/Kuala Lumpur/Penang/Langkawi/Kuching/Bangkok INR 23,980, Sydney/Perth/Brisbane/Melbourne/Adelaide INR 41,350. These include taxes and surcharges.

Fares are for economy class travel. Tickets must be purchased by January 15, 2009 and will be valid for travel from December 29, 2008 to March 31, 2009 for Singapore and South-East Asia and from February 01, 2009 to June 30, 2009 for the Australian destinations.

Similar offers are available from other Singapore Airlines cities in India.

One can also expect SQ's competitors, Malaysia Airlines, Thai Airways, and Jet Airways, to follow suit.

Since the travel agents' boycott of Singapore Airlines commences today, I recommend Bangalore Aviation readers to visit the Singapore Airline website.

PTI reports, Kingfisher Airlines, has said that it would effect fare cut across its network from January 1.

Without specifying the quantum of reduction in fares, in a statement today, Kingfisher Airlines Chairman, Dr. Vijay Mallya said

Kingfisher Airlines will begin the New Year on an aggressive note by slashing fares on its network,

The current low prices of Air Turbine Fuel (ATF) allows Kingfisher to pursue an opportunity to significantly increase market share by offering the fine five star flying experience at reduced fares.

Bangalore Aviation readers will recall, until now, Kingfisher, and its alliance partner Jet Airways, had been saying, fares would be cut only after the government classifies ATF in the Declared Goods category. The proposal of the Civil Aviation ministry is before the Parliament.

This long standing demand of airlines across the board, will ensure there will be a uniform four per cent sales tax on air fuel across the country, unlike the present, where sales taxes range from four per cent to 32 per cent, depending on the state, and accounts for over 35 per cent of airlines' operational costs.

However, several state governments oppose the uniform taxation as it would cause revenue loss to them.

Over the last four months, there has been a sharp decline in ATF prices. While some air carriers earlier this month reduced the fuel surcharge between Rs 200 and Rs 400, they did not touch the basic fare.

Mallya's decision could have its inspiration in the fact that Low Cost Carrier (LCC) IndiGo recently beat both Kingfisher Airlines and its LCC Kingfisher Red, to take third place in market share.

There is no doubt, the losses at the airline are significant. Just two weeks ago, there was news about four Kingfisher aircraft being de-registered. Doubts are rising on the impact of these losses on Dr. Mallya or his core alcoholic beverages business.

December 29, update.

The Times of India is reporting the fare reductions will be in the range of 10% and 15%. Jet Airways is expected to cut its fares by a similar amount, and Air India will follow suit. The LCCs IndiGo, SpiceJet, and Kingfisher Red are also working on the fares.

Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA), in a meeting held recently in New Delhi, has asked domestic airlines to pass on the benefits of reduced jet fuel prices to passengers by reducing fares.

According to a report in Economic Times (ET) today, MoCA has also instructed the airlines to review their security systems and verify the background of their employees in the light of the recent terror attacks in Mumbai. The meeting was attended by CEOs of various airlines and officials of the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). “We took stock of the entire aviation sector in the meeting on various issues right from Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) to security and airlines’ preparedness to land on airports during unusual fog conditions,” M Madhavan Nambiar, Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) told ET.

Nambiar further stated that the airlines cannot be forced to slash air fares as it’s a commercial decision of the air carriers. An official present in the meeting said that airlines had been categorically asked to reduce airfares to attract more passengers. “All of us should work together to increase passengers on the aircraft. Fares have to be competitive to fill up seats,” said the official.

According to estimates, there is still about 20 per cent excess capacity in the market that may put pressure on airline operators to slash fares. High airfares and slowdown in major economies has hit the domestic aviation sector. Domestic air traffic declined by 22 per cent to 3.04 million in November this year. Air traffic growth is expected to be negative for this year with the sector witnessing double-digit fall in passengers for the last several months.

The current slowing economy needs an extra large dose of stimulus to bring it back on track. Unlike previous slowdowns, this time a 360 degree effort is required to prime the pump and beat the "FUD" factor (Fear Uncertainty Doubt).

The government has to do it's part and focus on areas like infrastructure and other plan expenditure, the companies have to do their share, improve efficiency and reduce prices, and this time around, we the consumers are also going to have to do our bit, spending a bit more than we are comfortable with, even though we face FUD.

In the aviation sector the government has done a little bit like extending credit periods and partially reducing some taxes on aviation turbine fuel (ATF) , but it needs to bite the bullet of populism, and place ATF in the declared list, to ensure a uniform 4% tax across the nation. Government has to resist the political need to distribute populist largess, in the face of elections that are looming around the corner.

I doubt, the airline companies have fully appreciated the fact, that survival, and only then, growth, will be realized, if there is more revenue and with it, potentially greater profits. Selling more products or services is a challenge in the best of times, but in the current economic environment, regardless of business segment, it is a monumental challenge, most especially if one imagines maintaining current price points.

As consumers, all around us, we are seeing prices falling. Be it cars, trucks, two-wheelers, electronics, industrial goods, clothing, even consumer consumables like toiletries, cosmetics, and higher-end restaurants. The exceptions being the two major "F"s - fuel and food, and airline ticket prices, at least in India.

Following the lead of the private counterparts in the car, two-wheeler, who have begun announcing price cutting deals, and have even passed on the savings of the 4% reduction in Central VAT (Cenvat) to customers, the airline companies too have to pitch in and bring down their fares drastically, if they are to return passengers and cargo to the skies, until now, lost to road and rail.

Instead of learning from the global airline industry, the Indian airline industry seems to be playing the same goodwill loosing strategy as that of the Indian real estate industry, who continues to blame high interest rates as the reason for their lot in life, just as airlines continue to whip the fuel demon.

We keep hearing from airlines that fuel represents about 40%~50% of their total operating costs, and that taxation on ATF must be reduced. Most passengers agree on both statements. But, when fuel prices have retreated by almost 50% from a high of Rs. 71 per litre to Rs. 38 per litre, and yet the fuel surcharge levied by airlines is brought down by a paltry 13%, that too at the behest of government "suggestions", the airlines will have to face the cynicism and a complete lack of sympathy of the general populace, and may be, even some of the ministers.

In any organisation, may be with the exception of government, and some of most the iconic luxury brands, the first response to any slowdown is to cut costs, improve efficiencies, and offer customers a better price . The cost cutting could be anything from nominal to extreme, but the more the better.

India, and Indians, are renowned as one the most cost-conscious buyers on the planet. Give them a good deal, and they will flock to you. Keep prices high, and, you better have a big wad of cash sitting in the safe for your fixed costs, for you are going to be one very lonely organisation; and that is the downward spiral to bankruptcy.

Coupled with the recent terror attacks in Mumbai which will hit air traffic, this step by Air India (merged with the old Indian Airlines), will definitely increase the pressure on private carriers Jet and Kingfisher to reduce air fares by pruning the fuel surcharges.

Air India announced a reduction in fuel surcharge for all domestic sector flights by INR 400 with effect from 02-Dec-08. The fuel-surcharge is presently INR 2,350 for sectors below 750 kms and INR 3,100 for sectors over 750 kms. The average reduction in fuel surcharge will be over 14.5%.

The cut-back in fuel-surcharge is a consequence of the reduction in ATF prices from Sep-08 onwards, including the reduction announced by Oil Companies for Dec-08. Domestic air travel demand has been slow in recent months, and the reduction in fuel surcharge is expected to stimulate domestic air travel market during the winter peak season.

Mr. Raghu Menon, Chairman and Managing Director, Air India, said, "We have decided to bring down the fuel surcharge, now that crude prices have fallen globally, thereby bringing down ATF prices. Although crude prices are still volatile, we hope it will stabilize at the current levels, so that there is a short to medium term relief in ATF costs. This decision takes into account the reduced prices of ATF announced for the current month by the Oil Companies. While the airlines are no doubt going through difficult times, it is necessary for us to react positively to pass on some concession to passengers and generate demand."

Book with SpiceJet on the 13th and 14th November and fly your kids under 12 for free.

SpiceJet, announced a special promotion to commemorate Children’s Day, November 14th. Children fly free on all bookings done on November 13 and 14, 2008, only the statutory PSF of Rs. 225 will be charged. All children booked should be under 12 years on date of travel and be accompanied by an adult. Detailed terms and conditions of travel are available on www.spicejet.com.

Open for travel till 28th March 2009, this offer can be availed of through the SpiceJet website and SpiceJet call centre at 1800 180 3333 / 0987 180 3333. This offer cannot be availed with any other ongoing promotions and is valid on all its flights covering 17 destinations.

Special goody bags also await all Children who fly on November 14, 2008 on any flight on the SpiceJet network.