Air-India, BA launch fare discount wars

This is the first time that such a heavy discount of 40 to 45 per cent has been announced by any airline in India officially. Earlier, the discounts were passed on to the passengers through the travel agents. AI officials say the British Airways offer is just a “marketing gimmick” and that they were taking advantage of an Indian national event. “It’s like Air India celebrating the Queen’s birthday and offering discounts,” said a top official of Air India.

“The situation reflected by the BA announcement of heavy discounting goes contrary to the general perception of foreign carriers, which continue to seek more frequencies in and out of India,” he said. “It vindicates our stand that there is surplus capacity, barring for a few weeks,” the spokesman said.

“While they can fix their fares under the free market scenario, we object to the use of our national event by BA for the launch of its marketing strategy,” said J Bhargava, director and official spokeman of Air India. Air India officials added that they would neutralise every gain which the BA hopes to derive from the heavily discounted fares.

AI’s new package includes a flat rate of Rs 25,000 for an economy class ticket to London, as against the BA fare of Rs 26,000. This is as compared to AI’s earlier fare of Rs 36,870 to Heathrow and Rs 35,880 to other European destinations while BA charged around Rs 35,000 to 38,000 to the European destinations.