No frills in the air...!. Review on Simplifly Deccan

Hi all,

Nofrills has entered in the Indian market. And its time for party...!!

Airdeccan has taken the lead and Kingfisher is to follow.. Airsahara and Indian Airlines (by April 2005).

The No frill has reduced the air tickets drastically. Now we can get tickets as low as 500 Rs. and the peak ticket at 4000 Rs , which is the starting price for rest of the airlines. And the discounted tickets are booked till March 2005 !!!

So we all wonder how the heck these airlines are able to provide such cheap airfares !!!!!!

I will try and explain :

1: Not all tickets are sold at Rs 500, only the first 5 tickets are sold.And then there is an incremental slab.So an average ticket cost is about 3000 Rs

2: Since no food is served, around Rs 600 is saved on food/beverages per person by the airlines.

3: The flight can manage with only 4 crew i.e. reducing by almost 3 people.

4: A significant space is saved because no storage space for food is required, and 2-4 additional seats are put.

5: The planes which are used,are the ones which have min cost of fight per person.A 48-seater aircraft consumes less fuel.

6: A regular airlines spends around 20 % of the ticket amount in getting one booked. For Nofrills, it is either an internet booking or via call centre. This saves more than 15% of the tickcet amount on booking.An online booking scheme and an international call centre replaces

traditional booking offices.

7: The fights try to have 100 % occupancy.

8: The planes will be flying many more hours and offering free seating, which means passengers will scramble to board a plane quickly. It will not check the passenger's baggage on to connecting flights. Passengers will have to lug their baggage to the next check-in.

9: There is no business class.

Anyways the consumer is the winner in the end...since we will not mind sacrifising food for getting the seat for less than half the price...:)

Thanks,

Saurabh