Air India joins price war on Mumbai-London route

After Jet and British Airways slashed fares on the competitive Mumbai-London route fearing the imminent entry of Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic , national carrier Air India too has joined the low-fare bandwagon in order to fill up its flights.

As a fallout of the pilots’ strike in May, Air India’s international services were crippled for about three months during peak travel season this year.

According to a report in the Business Standard , Air India is offering low fares for tickets bought to London till November 7, valid for travel till December-end, including all-inclusive economy return fares of Rs 42,000-44,000.

[caption id=“attachment_500982” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] As a fallout of the pilot’s strike, Air India’s international services were crippled for about three months during peak travel season this year.[/caption]

Last month, Virgin Atlantic reduced fares on this route to Rs 42,000 as part of its inaugural offer in order to grab as much market share as it could during the festive season. Branson’s inaugural offer resulted in a domino effect with Jet Airways offering Rs 9,990 per passenger (round trip, excluding taxes) on this route for 18 days from October 29 ( the same day Virgin Atlantic resumes India operations ) and British Airways launching its holiday offer of Rs 40,943 inclusive of taxes and levies again from October 29 to November 16.

The fare war is happening at a time when fares on local routes are rising due to the collapse of Kingfisher Airlines and demand from holiday and business travellers.

The way things are, it might just be cheaper to travel to fly from Mumbai to London than Mumbai to Kolkata during the Christmas break.