With Rs 5 base fare for Bengaluru-Goa, AirAsia does not disappoint

So AirAsia India is offering 15,000 seats at Rs 5 base fare, which means the total cost to you will be Rs 490 after taxes and other levies. The “promo” fares are available for three destinations - Bengaluru, Chennai and Goa - and exclude a charge for checked in baggage. The standard fare from these destinations is Rs 990, a rock bottom fare. Bookings start in an hour.

Is AirAsia India offering unprecedented low fares? SpiceJet COO Sanjiv Kapoor tweeted that the Rs 990 standard fare is “close to the Re 1 fare that his airline had offered earlier since after taxes and levies it was coming to about Rs 800 on an average.” It was a pleasant surprise to see that instead of carping about the biggest competitor which is just starting out, SpiceJet’s Kapoor actively engaged in a discussion on these low fares and retweeted AirAsia India CEO Mittu Chandilya’s Rs 5 twitter announcement. A far cry from other LCCs which maintained a studied silence on twitter about AirAsia’s aggressive fares but are sure to launch their own discount offers soon.

Chandilya had earlier said that the Rs 990 fare is anyway a 30 percent discount on existing fares but what about aviation regulator DGCA frowning on the move? The DGCA has already forced SpiceJet to scrap Re 1 and Rs 799 fares the airline had launched earlier, terming them predatory and questioning the limited inventory which was released at these discounted fares. There is no information as of now on how much of the total inventory the 15,000 seats on offer by AirAsia constitute.

In a press conference in Chennai this morning, Chandilya announced his airline will launch services on 12 June with a flight service between Bangalore and Goa at Rs 990 fare. Agencies quoted him saying there will not be business class seats but “hot” seats spread across the aircraft with more leg space, priced a little more. AirAsia India will launch its Bangalore-Chennai operation on 20 June.

Here’s some more interesting information from Chandilya’s interaction:

1. Point-to-point operations, connecting tier II cities and an aircraft turnaround time of 20 minutes.

2. Only one aircraft now but total 10 this fiscal. Chennai its base, Bangalore second base. The airline is planning to cover 10 cities.

3. His tweets this evening suggested checked in baggage will carry additional charge.

Expect a full scale fare war in the domestic skies starting tonight.