​ Air India may be the biggest gainer in surge pricing introduced in Rajdhani trains

If you have turned over today’s dailies, the Air India mascot Maharaja luring you with amazing deals on flight tickets shouldn’t be missed. No sooner had the Railway minister Suresh Prabhu planned to introduce surge pricing in Rajdhani and Shatabdi fares, than Air India thought of poaching Prabhu’s target group.

The full page advertisements on major national dailies say that unsold seats on its metro flights will be available at Rajdhani II fares four hours before departure.
Recently Indian Railways has introduced surge pricing model in AC III and AC II fares of Rajdhani and Shatabdi where fare will go up by 10% for every 10% seats sold, with a cap of 1.5 times the base fare. The airline will follow the AC II regular fare.

For instance, the airline will charge Rs 2,870, Rs 2,990 and Rs 4,090 for last-minute unsold seats on flights from Delhi to Mumbai, Kolkata and Bengaluru respectively. "The new Rajdhani AC II fares on these routes can be as high as Rs 4,054; Rs 4,090 and Rs 5,626 respectively. The difference is stark," an AI official told TOI.

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— Ashok Gajapathi Raju (@Ashok_Gajapathi) September 10, 2016

 

The newspaper advertisement
Rajdhani AC II fares are available on AI flights on 11 important metro routes, including Delhi to Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Kolkata and Ahmedabad. While AI fares are subject to availability, almost all Indian carriers are offering hefty discounts due to the entry of new players and all airlines, old and new, are ordering and inducting aircraft by the dozen, as per a report by The Economic Times. On Thursday night, travel portals were showing fares starting from Rs 2,800 for a Delhi-Mumbai flight on Friday -the start of a long festive weekend.

"The recent surge pricing announcement in railway fares will change the perception of the average traveller. Our data suggests that there is a minor difference between railway and air fare. This development will boost air travel as the air fare is now competitive and cheaper than AC II and is almost the same as AC III," travel portal Yatra president Sharat Dhall said in a press release. "For travellers making advance bookings, this is a favourable time to book as airfares are highly unlikely to increase."