Saturday October 17, 02:41 AM

Source: Indian Express Finance

Jet Airways, AI line up holiday packages to woo customers

By fe Bureaus
Private carrier Jet Airways and Air India (AI) have introduced attractive holiday packages at the onset of Diwali. While Jet has launched JetEscapes, which offer attractive packages to international and domestic destinations, AI has 400 domestic and over ten international destinations on offer in their holiday packages this season. The move is aimed to spike up revenue figures for the airline. AI had raked in Rs 74 crore from sale of holiday packages in 2008. Co-incidentally, both carriers had declining load factors in the previous months since their pilots struck work for four days. On the one hand, both the carriers want to improve yields and gain back customer confidence. The move is termed as a marketing strategy to woo back fliers to the airline. JetEscapes offers attractive holiday packages beginning at Rs 13,000 onwards for destinations such as Alleppy, Leh and Shimla. Jet Airways chief commercial officer Sudheer Raghavan said, JetEscapes is flexible, dynamic and assures instant co firmation of air and hotel arrangements. Meanwhile, AI has on offer over 400 comprehensive package options covering 150 cities in 22 states of the country and over 10 international destinations. A package normally includes return airfares, airport transfers, accommodation in standard 3-5 star hotels, meals and local sightseeing, all at economical prices. Last year, AI sold 1,110 holiday packages in the first 20 days of May alone, fetching the airline Rs 8.5 crore. In April 2008, around 400 packages had been sold. In fiscal 2007-08, the airline earned a revenue of Rs 74.10 crore from the sale of 13,120 holiday packages. Jet lost around $12 million in four days in the first week of September when it s over 400 senior pilots struck work to protest against the dismissal of two of their colleagues for forming a union. Each passing day of the strike, the number of passenger came down to 22,000 from 24,000 to 7,000 on the last day of the strike. Similarly, even AI witnessed 10% dip in its passenger numbers in mid-September when its executive pilots went on sick leave to protest against a cut in their salaries. The carrier flies nearly 25,000 passengers each day. Industry observers said since most airlines have faced poor loads in the first quarter of this fiscal, other airlines may also announce attractive fares this season to gain load factors. The sector is also poised to post losses of over Rs 10,000 crore for the current financial year, according to industry estimates.