Jet beats competition with business class discounts, sees 50% jump in bookings

New Delhi: Jet Airways’ three-day sale on business class seats across the domestic network has taken competition by surprise. Sources tell us Vistara and Air India were also preparing a discount scheme for business class seats on their respective domestic networks when Jet pulled the rug from under the feet of both airlines. Neither Vistara nor Air India have officially confirmed if they are still working on a discount package to sell more business class seats during the ongoing summer rush. All Air India did a day after Jet announced its sale was to launch a economy class bonanza.[caption id=“attachment_2183373” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  A Jet Airways aircraft. Reuters[/caption] It is rather ironic that Jet has won the race to launch business class discounts and specially so for Air India. The airline has in the recent past been specifically instructed by Civil Aviation Minister A Gajapathi Raju to offer business class seats at 50 percent discount a few hours before the flight. The airline is known to have very low occupancy on business class seats for some flights. With Jet gaining the first mover advantage, will Air India rise from slumber and draft another offer for getting some passengers on seats in the front of the aircraft? A Jet Airways spokesperson said the airline has already seen 50 percent jump in bookings. Under the scheme, bookings have to made till today for travel beginning 20 June and there is a 25 percent discount on all “premiere” seats on Jet’s domestic network. A Delhi-Mumbai ticket under this scheme is for a little less than Rs 20,000 whereas Bhopal-Mumbai is just shy of Rs 5000. Officials at travel portal cleartrip.com say Jet’s flash sale could show interesting results. “Stimulating demand with sales like these works on various grounds even for business class as it allows the airline to cater to the value consumer. It’s an opportunity to tap the large SME and premium leisure segment of customers who are unlikely to pay the high premiums for business class travel otherwise. Business class load factors across the network are generally significantly lower than economy barring a few high traffic trunk routes connecting Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata. Such sales enable airlines to get more predictable and higher load factors,” they said. According to Cleartrip, the total daily seats offered in the Indian domestic market are around 265,000. Of these, around 9,000 (or just 3.3 percent) are estimated to be business class seats. The Jet spokesperson said Premiere Class seats form around 7 percent of total seats offered by Jet Airways on the domestic network. Cleartrip also said that only half the business class seats available on the domestic network are occupied. So offering significant discounts to generate volumes makes sense for all full service carriers in India. Meanwhile, Air India launched a ‘Fly anywhere in India for Rs 1,777/- onwards’ scheme yesterday for economy class seats. From 10-12 June, the airline is offering attractive, all-inclusive fares starting at Rs 1,777 for travel on its domestic network of 66 stations. Tickets bought in this Monsoon Sale will be valid for travel from 1 July to 30 September.