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AirAsia India Set to Begin Operations from June 12

AirAsia India Aircraft at Bangalore Airport
AirAsia India Aircraft at Bangalore Airport

The domestic aviation space is all set to witness severe competition with the entry of AirAsia India, which starts operation from June 12.

AirAsia India, the Indian arm of the Malaysian no-frills airline headed by Tony Fernandes, will become the fourth budget carrier in the country - after IndiGo, SpiceJet and GoAir - once its maiden flight takes off from Bangalore to Goa at 3:10 p.m. on Thursday.

Besides these, the Naresh-Goyal promoted full service airline Jet Airways also operates a low-cost service JetLite.

Tickets for AirAsia India's maiden flight from Bangalore to Goa were sold out within 10 minutes, the airline had earlier said.

(See: Tickets for AirAsia India's first flight sold out in 10 minutes)

"AirAsia India sold out 25,000 promo seats within 48 hours of opening for bookings. The tickets for the first flight from Bangalore to Goa on June 12 were sold out within 10 minutes of opening for sales," the Chennai-based carrier said in a statement.

Other budget carriers have also been on a low-fare spree with SpiceJet coming out with as many as 13 such offers since January this year till date, with the most recent being Rs 1,999 offer on eight cities from South India.

As of now among the domestic carriers, IndiGo dominates the local market with 31.6 per cent share, followed by Jet Airways-JetLite combine with 21.8 per cent and Air India with 18.3 per cent, according to Directorate General of Civil Aviation data for April traffic.

While, SpiceJet had a 17.9 per cent market share in April this year, GoAir had 9.5 per cent.

AirAsia India, whose top officials have promised to offer low and competitive airfares, will focus on connecting tier-II cities to begin with.

(See: AirAsia effect: IndiGo offers big discounts)

"Our airlines' fares will be about 35 per cent lower than the current market rates," AirAsia India chief executive Mittu Chandilya had earlier said.

The new entrant has already triggered the fare war by announcing fares as low as Rs 990 for its Bangalore-Goa and Bangalore-Chennai routes, forcing the rival carriers, including IndiGo to come out with matching fares.

IndiGo announced promotional fares for just Re 1 on the Bangalore, Chennai and Goa routes.

Interestingly, AirAsia India has made Chennai its hub, which also happens to be the base of SpiceJet. The Indian subsidiary of the Malaysian carrier plans to have a fleet of 10 aircraft, drawn from A-320 family, within a year of starting operations.

On March 22, AirAsia India received its first A-320 aircraft, configured in an all-economy layout, with 180 seats.