Air Asia X - Pic credit AirAsia Blog
In the backdrop of its India entry, Malaysian budget carrier AirAsia has opened bookings for two million seats between April 2 and 7, 2013 offering air tickets as cheap as Rs 3,300 to South East Asian destinations for travel next year.
One can fly from Kolkata to Bangkok for all-in-fare of Rs 3,300, Chennai to Bangkok for Rs 3,500, Bangalore to Kuala Lumpur for Rs 5,500 , Kolkata to Kuala Lumpur for Rs 5000, Kochi or Chennai to Kuala Lumpur for Rs 4500 and from Tiruchirapalli to Kuala Lumpur for Rs 4000, a statement by the budget carrier on Monday said.
"We are the only airline in the region to constantly keep our fares low and offer free seats campaigns in such a scale. It has now become an anticipated global virtual event and we will continue to stay true to our promise of 'Now Everyone Can Fly'," Siegtraund Teh, Group Chief Commercial Officer of AirAsia said.
"Free seats to domestic Malaysia destinations such as Penang, Alor Setar, Johor Bahru, Kota Bahru, Terengganu and more are also available from Kuala Lumpur . Only taxes and fees apply to these free seats, which will be available from INR 0 one way," the statement added.
These tickets can be booked for a travel period of January 1-April 30, 2014, which, according to AirAsia officials is in line with the airline's standard practise of encouraging advance bookings.
"This is a standard promotion offer all over the world for all routes and nothing to do with India entry as we may enter even before January next," a company official said, declining to be named.
The official also said that their offer was different from the one recently offered by Tiger Airways.
In March, Singapore-based Tiger Airways opened a promotional offer for tickets to Singapore from Chennai, Kochi, Bangalore, Hyderabad Thiruvananthapuram and Tiruchirapalli at $50 (Rs 2700) for travel between May 1st and December 15th. The tickets will be on offer until March 13.
The scheme, which offered 10 seats on each flight, was one to celebrate five years of its Indian operations.
In an earlier story, ET had reported that AirAsia's standard practise is to open seat bookings a few months in advance at a nominal price, going up to ten times that sum near the flight day.
The idea is to stimulate the market with low fares till a certain percentage of seats are filled and then go to the highest levels. This is standard AirAsia practise across its network in Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines and Japan arms, which would be later replicated in India.
AirAsia flies 186 routes, covering 85 destinations throughout 18 countries.
"We have predicted a fare war in the next 12 months. This is a precursor. AirAsia is stimulating the market in the backdrop of their India entry. Even if they sell 1 million seats at say Rs 4,000, we are looking at an upfront cash collection of Rs400 crore, which can help fund their India plans.
GOT ANYTHING TO ASK REGARDING AIRASIA SERVICES AND OFFERS CLICK BUTTON AIRASIA ASK! INTERACTIVES: [button link="http://www.airasia.com/ask/template.do?id=215" variation="red" size="large"]ASK AIRASIA[/button]
This may force other Indian carriers to follow suit since the January-April period typically sees limited tourism traffic," said Amber Dubey, partner and head (aviation) at global consultancy KPMG. Jet Airways, India's secondlargest airline by market share, and Air India did not respond to ET's queries.
Last Wednesday, the government cleared AirAsia's proposal to start a passenger airline in India in partnership with the Tata Group and Telstra Tradeplace's Arun Bhatia, whose son is married to the daughter of NRI billionaire Lakshmi Mittal. AirAsia will hold 49% stake, Tata Sons 30% and Bhatia 21% in the new venture.
Rajan Mehra, a former India head for Qatar Airways and the managing director (India) for Universal Aviation รข€” a business aviation services provider, said most airlines float such offers when they enter a new market.
"Such an offer is the best bet to make people aware that a customer-friendly airline is coming to town. So, in a way, it is a backhanded way of advertising their product. This could cause a cascading effect (in terms of response from other airlines)," Mehra said.
Himanshu Singh, managing director of online travel portal Travelocity, concurred with Mehra's views on AirAsia's seat sale, but doubted whether Indian airlines would respond to the offer. "Indian carriers are mature enough not to react to such discounts.
Given that AirAsia is entering India with a long-term plan, they will sooner or later look to tap passengers through a hub & spoke model, like Spice-Jet, and would want to fly Indians out. This scheme may well be the groundwork for that," Singh surmised. "We are the only airline in the region to constantly keep our fares low and offer free seats campaigns at such a scale.
It has now become an anticipated global virtual event and we will continue to stay true to our promise of 'Now Everyone Can Fly'," said Siegtraund Teh, group chief commercial officer of AirAsia. "Free seats to domestic Malaysian destinations such as Penang, Alor Setar, Johor Bahru, Kota Bahru and Terengganu are also available from Kuala Lumpur. Only taxes and fees apply to these free seats, which will be available from INR 0 one way," the statement from AirAsia added.
The AirAsia official said their offer was different from the one floated recently by Tiger Airways. In March, Singapore-based Tiger Airways opened a promotional offer for tickets to Singapore from Chennai, Kochi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Thiruvananthapuram and Tiruchirapalli at $50 (Rs 2,700) for travel between May 1 and December 15, 2013.
These tickets were on offer till March 13. The Tiger Airways scheme, which offered 10 seats on each flight, was to celebrate five years of its operations in India.
FOR BOOKING CLICK BUTTON TO AIRASIA OFFICIAL SITES
Book the lowest fares now
: 20 May 2013 - 2 June 2013
: 1 June 2013 - 30 September 2013
Travel Notes
- Advanced booking required.
- Fares are not available during embargo period.
(*) Travel Period for these flights start from 15 July - 30 September 2013
Source Airasia X India Times
air asia booking air asia flight schedule air asia offer air asia online booking airasia x Airlines airlines in malaysia Airlines News asiana airlines Business News Latest News low fare air asia