Air India cuts ticket prices for holiday travel

Air India cuts ticket prices for holiday travelIn a bid to boost its passenger traffic in the summer travel season, Air India on Tuesday cut the rates of its advance purchase tickets.

The government-owned carrier is offering lower-priced advance purchase tickets for travel commencing sixty days or beyond. The new advance purchase air tickets are available for sale on various routes operated by the carrier from today, March 13.

Air India said in a statement, "The apex tickets are available for sale for travel commencing around the middle of May onwards."

The sixty-day advance purchase fare on the Delhi to Mumbai and Delhi to Lucknow routes has been dragged down to Rs 3,981 and Rs 2,566, respectively.

The carrier is of the opinion that that the new initiative will boost its passenger traffic by encouraging more and more people o travel by air during holiday season.

The lowered fares are positioned very close to prices of AC train tickets.

Separately, an Air India official revealed that the carrier expected to generate an operating profit or EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation & amortization) of Rs 1,040 crore for the FY2013-14.