A fare war has now surfaced on the Dhaka-Kolkata route, as Indian carriers recently slashed fares drastically to secure a slice of the market, airline officials said yesterday. In the last couple of days, three Indian carriers operating from Bangladesh reduced their fares for flights between Dhaka-Kolkata. Air India Express was the first to cut fare, followed by Jet Airways and the newest entrant Kingfisher Airlines.Local carriers--Biman Bangladesh Airlines, GMG and United Airways -- are yet to respond to the price cuts by the Indian carriers and some said they are first observing the situation.“We cut our fares to allure more travellers to our flights on the route. Our Dhaka-Delhi route has a 90 percent rate of occupancy, but it is quite low for our Dhaka-Kolkata route. I hope we will be able to attract more travellers after the reduction in fares,” said Sudhakar Rao, general manager of Jet Airways in Bangladesh.The Jet Airways official termed the latest fare promotional and said it would continue from May 18 to June 30.The fare war began as Liquor baron Vijay Mallya led private airline Kingfisher Airlines to debut on the Dhaka-Kolkata route on May 15. It is the sixth airline to secure a slice of the air-travel market, which is blessed mainly by Bangladeshi medical treatment seekers, tourists and business people.Industry insiders said air-travel on the Dhaka-Kolkata route is limited, with about 200 air-travellers commuting a day.Jet Airways now offers Dhaka-Kolkata-Dhaka flights at a total of Tk 5,700, down from Tk 11,900 from last week.Indian budget carrier Air India Express also brought down fares from Tk 9,635 for return flights to about Tk 6,149. Officials of the carrier in Dhaka however said the airline slashed fares to attract travellers during the recession, which cast a shadow on air travel.On May 20, Kingfisher Airlines, operating a 66-seater ATR aircraft on the route, started charging Tk 5,730 for the Dhaka-Kolkata-Dhaka route, as a promotional step. Launching operations on May 15 from Dhaka, the carrier offered Tk 10,518 on return flights on the Dhaka-Kolkata-Dhaka route, a reservations official said. Dhaka is the third global destinations for the airline. However, none of the three local carriers-Biman, GMG and United-are yet to cut fares. Rather, local carriers have kept their fares as low as Tk 10,000 for return flights between Dhaka and Kolkata. “We don't want to engage in the price war. Let them do what they prefer,” said Sadad Rahman, vice president in charge of marketing for private carrier GMG Airlines.
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