SpiceJet offers 50% discount on domestic tickets for 3 days

Budget airline SpiceJet today announced 50 percent discount for all domestic tickets booked between 21 January and 23 January.

The company told CNBC-TV18 that a minimum 30 days advance purchase is must to avail of the discount.

It said discounts will not impact the company’s margins and was solely aimed at increasing the passenger load factor.

Speaking to CNBC-TV18, SL Narayanan, Group CFO, Sun Group said he expects no impact on margins as a result of the discounts.

The company had made a similar offer last year too. In January 2013, the company offered 10 lakh tickets booked during a three-day period at an all-inclusive fare of Rs 2,013.

January-March is a lean season for the aviation sector. The move by the company could be seen as an attempt to increase volumes by not being over concerned about margins and yield per passenger.

Losses at SpiceJet have been mounting, as the company grapples with high fuel price and fierce competition. The company has reported a net loss of Rs 508 crore for the first half of this financial year, on the back of a Rs 191-crore loss for 2012-13.

“It was a collective management decision to do something new, something that would acts as a catalyst and create an opportunity which would force people to fly in the lean season,” says Virender Pal, CTO, SpiceJet, had said about last year’s firesale .

However, media reports had later said that the firesale may be one of the reasons for the fallout between SpiceJet’s then CEO Neil Mills and promoter Kalanithi Maran, which resulted in the resignation of Mills.