If you are planning a holiday this summer to the US, Australia, Germany or Hong Kong, international carriers will make sure you do it without burning a hole in your pocket.
Ticket prices do fall 10-15 per cent every summer. But, this year, the fares have fallen 30-60 per cent. Some airlines have decided to top these rock bottom fares with freebies like free hotel accommodation.
You have the capacity build- up on key international routes to thank for it. While the rest of the world seems headed for a slowdown, Indians continue to travel abroad in ever-increasing numbers. There is a mad scramble amongst airlines, including home-grown carriers Air India and Jet Airways to get a slice of this traffic.
"Where there were only 500 seats per day earlier, there are 3,000 today," said travel consultant Karl Dantas. Added Arup Sen, executive director, Cox & Kings: "The number of offers from international airlines has gone up this season. The airlines are competing with tour operators who are specialists in this business."
One such hot sector is India-Hong Kong. Cathay Pacific has dropped its return fare to Rs 26,330 (Mumbai-Hong Kong-Mumbai) from Rs 32,000. And with the fare comes an attractive package -- two nights in a Disney hotel in Hong Kong with some meal coupons thrown in. It is also offering the fourth ticket free on the purchase of three tickets.
By June, the airline will have doubled its capacity on the sector by adding 11 additional flights a week to the existing 24.
The reason for the extra flights is not hard to seek. Jet Airways is all set to challenge Cathay Pacific's monopoly on the route -- it recently started a daily flight from Mumbai to Hong Kong and has announced that it will have seven flights a week from Delhi this summer.
Singapore Airlines, which has the lion's share of the India-San Francisco market routed through Singapore, too will face the heat of competition soon. Jet Airways is planning to fly to San Francisco via Shanghai from May and Kingfisher is set to put in a direct flight from Bangalore to San Francisco once it launches in August.
Air India has announced it will put in a direct flight to San Francisco from Bangalore (it already has direct flights to the US city from Mumbai and Delhi every day).
To guard its turf, Singapore Airlines has decided to woo older people who travel in large numbers on the sector to meet their children.
Senior citizens can now travel to San Francisco (the majority of Indian techies in the US are there) and Los Angeles at just Rs 54,880 (inclusive of taxes) on the airline -- 60 per cent lower than the normal price of Rs 88,438.
The airline has also slashed air fares by around 30 per cent on some key tourist destinations in South East Asia.
With Air India mulling the possibility of setting up its European hub in Munich, Lufthansa has decided to hardsell its new flight from India to the German city with a promotional return fare offer of just Rs 20,000 (economy class, taxes extra). Compared with the lowest fare of Rs 32,520 available on other airlines, the discount works out to over 62 per cent.
The Australian market too has caught up. Faced with stiff competition from Singapore Airlines, the Australian carrier has put on offer fares in which the passengers get the domestic leg of the journey virtually free.
An India-Melbourne-Adelaide-India ticket can be bought for Rs 34,000. The fares are more or less at par with what you would have forked out between India-Sydney and India-Melbourne on competing airlines.
Carriers in West Asia too are ready to join the bandwagon, though they are reluctant to show their hand at the moment.
"Emirates Holidays will actively promote sought- after destinations such as Jordan and Egypt in West Asia and in Europe this season," said an Emirates spokesperson.