03 August,2009 09:00 AM IST | | Madhusudan Maney
Suddenly, budget is the magic word for fliers, and airlines are taking note
Passengers are switching from business class to economy, forcing airlines to rethink their strategies. MID DAY finds out what people in the trade are doing:
Jitendar Bhargava, Air India executive director, corporate commn.
Already, we have a few budget aircrafts. In a couple of months, we will expand our domestic flights as we have to convert from two classes to one class (economy class). At present, low cost airlines are scoring. We will have to adapt to market needs.
Amarnath B A, Matha Air Travel
Almost all airlines have budget aircrafts and these days, their offers are unbelievable. Every airline has slashed rates and is giving away tickets at throwaway prices because of the competition.u00a0 We have regular customers who now opt for economy class only. For example, if a person has to travel in business class from Bangalore to Delhi, it costs around Rs 33,000 but in economy class, it costs around Rs 7,000. The difference is almost 60 per cent.
Nagendra Nataraj, travel agent, Avion Network
This phenomenon began from November 2008. In January-February, 2009, there was a further drop in sales by about 40 per cent. Those who were travelling by economy class have now started to travel by train in first and second class.
Earlier, there were coupon sales in business class but now it has become almost zero. Since last month, we have booked just one or two tickets in business class.
HR manager of an MNC
At present, only top executives are travelling in business class and the rest travel by economy class only if it's very important. Many times, we try to finish meetings through videoconferencing.
This is primarily because of the financial meltdown. It's not only our company but many others which have started following this.
Balaji A, HR manager
In our company, we have started to book economy tickets for our executives. Earlier, we used to book them in business class but we are now trying to cut costs, wherever possible.
