Airliners-India

karatecatman

TIMES OF INDIA
Bonanza of low airfares to southeast Asia
V Ayyappan
TNN
5 November 2009

CHENNAI: Flying to destinations in southeast Asia may be a good bet during the Christmas, New Year and Pongal holidays, as international low-cost airlines are vying with each other to offer cheap fares from Chennai and Tiruchirapalli.

There will be more seats, too. For instance, Singapore-based low cost carrier Tiger Airways will increase from next month its Chennai-Singapore frequency - from seven flights a week to eleven weekly flights.

Currently, Tiger Airways offer the best return fares from Chennai to Singapore, with the lowest fares ranging from Rs 4,125 to Rs 5,000 for travel in the last week of December. Though the airline charges extra for baggage and food, passengers feel that it's much cheaper compared to the fares offered by Singapore Airlines, Air India, Sri Lankan Airlines and others.

Sales of tickets for Tiger Airways are online, the reason many are unfamiliar with the airline. The airline has one counter at Chennai airport though, to sell last-minute tickets and charge for baggage.

Air Asia, the Malaysia-based low-cost carrier that runs services to Singapore and Kuala Lumpur from Tiruchi, Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram, has kicked off an aggressive marketing campaign in the city to familiarise residents about the airline, its services and fares.

"Air Asia is not planning to start services from Chennai because services from Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram were launched recently. The marketing drive is aimed at encouraging Chennaiites to travel to Tiruchi or Kochi to fly with us to Kuala Lumpur or Singapore. We see lots of travellers coming to Tiruchi to board Air Asia flights as fares are cheaper," said a spokesperson of the airline.

Air India will also be joining the low-cost bandwagon. It may replace the remaining full-service IC flights with low-cost Air India Express (AIE) services. AIE flights are now operated from Chennai to Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.

"The Chennai-Kuala Lumpur service (IC 995) is still operated using an IC flight. But this will be replaced soon either with Air India Express or an Air India flight. The airline is rationalising routes by slotting Air India and Air India Express on international sectors and IC flights on domestic routes because rules of the Star Alliance state that an airline should operate only single-coded flights on international routes," said an Air India official.

"Indian holiday destinations may loose their sheen if passengers opt for low-cost airlines to fly to Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok. It's a good option for an economy traveller who wants to save money for travel so that more money can be spent at tourist spots," said Hi Tours vice president M K Ajith Kumar.

The Air India official said that AIE flights to Singapore and Kuala Lumpur had good passenger loads.

Sylvester Thomas, managing director, Around the World Tours and Travels, said that more low-cost carriers would make flights competitive.
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