Air Sahara opens price war in Delhi-London route

 Now, fly Delhi-London at Rs 10,000 for a return ticket

BY A CORRESPONDENT
2nd January 2006

Air Sahara has opened a new front on the fare war by starting a Delhi-London flight, with a fare as low as Rs 17,999 for a return ticket. This was announced by the airline's president Ronojoy Datta at a press conference in New Delhi today.

The first 2006 tickets bookings through the company's website will also get a special discount fare of Rs 10,000 instead of the regular Rs 17,999, a saving of nearly Rs 8000. Air Sahara also inaugurated its revamped website today, named www.airsahara.net.

Air Sahara's New Delhi-London flights will be available four times a week. Air Sahara is deploying Boeing aircraft on this route. Each plane will carry about 185 passengers.

Apart from this low-end ticket fare, other higher-priced segments are also available on the Air Sahara Delhi-London flight. The highest ticket fare has been pegged at Rs 1,70,000.

Air Sahara already operates international flights to Singapore, Colombo and Nepal. Air Sahara also has plans to fly to Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok and Hong Kong.

Besides Air Sahara, the only other Indian private airline which has a permit fly abroad is Jet Airways, which is the country's No.1 private sector player.

Air Sahara is also looking for a buyer. Recently, Kingfisher Airlines had put in a bid to buy a stake in Sahara. One major reason why the new airlines are interested in Air Sahara is that while Air Sahara can fly abroad, the newbies can't.