PremiumNEW DELHI: Airlines are rolling out various discounts and promotional offers to attract passengers as air traffic slowly recovers with a fall in active covid-19 cases.
No-frills carrier SpiceJet Limited on Friday rolled out a monsoon sale offering one-way all-inclusive domestic fares at ₹999 on routes like Hyderabad-Belgaum, Belgaum-Hyderabad, Chennai-Hyderabad, Chennai-Bengaluru, amongst others. The sale offer is valid for bookings made between 25 June and 30 June 2021, for travel between 1 August 2021 and 31 March 2022.
Vistara, a joint venture between Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines, has announced a 48-hour sale ending on Friday for travel between 1 August and 12 October.
“The unfortunate second wave of covid-19 compelled many to put their travel plans on hold. As the situation begins to gradually improve and demand starts to return, we are happy to invite travellers to fly with the airline that India trusts the most to their destinations, at these attractive fares," said Vinod Kannan, Chief Commercial Officer, Vistara, in a statement.
Meanwhile, InterGlobe Aviation Limited-operated IndiGo, the country's largest domestic airline, is offering a discount of up to 10% on the base fares to customers that have been vaccinated against covid-19.
The various discounts and promotions rolled out by airlines come at a time when air passenger traffic saw a rise for the third straight week as a drop in covid-19 cases and easing of curbs by most states led more people to take to the skies.
Air passenger traffic fell for 10 consecutive weeks between March and May due to the second wave of covid-19 pandemic.
However, the average number of daily fliers rose to 103,000 for the week ended 19 June, from 83,000 fliers a week ago, brokerage firm ICICI Securities said in a recent report.
"During the second wave, gains made by airlines were wiped off as air passenger traffic fell sharply during the April-May period. However, the aviation sector is seeing a slight recovery," said a senior airline official, who spoke under condition of anonymity.
"June- August quarter is traditionally weak for airlines due to monsoons. Then there is the fear of covid-19 that is keeping many from taking flights or going for a vacation. The promotional offers rolled out by various airlines are steps to attract passengers to travel," the official added.
Domestic air passenger traffic in India is expected to surge 52% this fiscal while international passenger traffic is expected to rise 60%, rebounding from the turbulence caused by the pandemic, Capa India said on Thursday.
Overall passenger traffic is, however, expected to remain well below the figures recorded in FY2020 prior to the covid-19 outbreak, the aviation consultancy said in its India Aviation Outlook FY2022. Capa India expects about 80 million passengers to fly within the country and 16 million to travel overseas this fiscal, up from 53 million domestic passengers and 10 million international passengers during FY2021.
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