Air India announces special fares to consolidate position

Air India to reserve seats for women on domestic flights

Air India has slashed fares and has brought its flyers the joy of booking air tickets at the price of AC 2nd class of Rajdhani Express. Passengers travelling on select domestic sectors in the economy class can avail this exclusive offer.

Air India, the national carrier of India, commenced the ‘Special Fares’ scheme from January 6. Around 20,000 passengers travel in Rajdhani Express trains on a daily basis across the country. Passengers booking their tickets under this scheme can reach their destinations at the same cost of Rajdhani Express in much lesser time. The tickets can be booked between January 6 and April 10, and it will be valid for the travel period of January 26-April 30. The tickets can be purchased only from the Air India website, airline city booking offices and travel agents. Also, a lucky draw on select flights will be conducted every Tuesday and Wednesday on the special fares route during the validity of the schemes.

In June last year, Air India introduced ‘Super Fares’ scheme under which passengers unable to get confirmed bookings on Rajdhani Express, had the opportunity to book tickets four hours prior to the flight departure, at fares equivalent to Rajdhani Express (1A). The scheme received a good response, because of which it is introduced again.

Adds all-female section

With recent reports of some women being groped by other passengers, Air India has begun selling female-only seat sections. Starting January 18, passengers will have the option of purchasing tickets in the reserved women-only section, six seats in the third row of the economy class. The six seats will be made available on the Airbus A320 aircraft on flights within India.

A general manager from Air India, Meenakshi Malik said, “We feel, as national carriers, it is our responsibility to enhance comfort level to female passengers. There are a lot of female passengers who travel alone with us and we will be blocking a few seats for them.”

“In-flight misbehaviour is on the rise in recent times. Our pilots adopt zero tolerance for offenses like sexual harassment, both of air hostesses or flyers, and hand over offenders to law enforcing agencies on landing,” said a senior official.

The women-only seats may be extended to other flights in the next few months. Single passengers will be able to request the seats without any extra cost when they check in.