No Predatory Fare in Airlines, Says Spicejet Chief

New Delhi: If airlines have resorted to predatory pricing, they would not have made losses in the past 10 years. That's what Ajay Singh, chief of the low cost airline, Spicejet, told NDTV, responding to why airlines have not reduced fares despite aviation fuel dropping by as much as 40 per cent in the past one year.  

"You know predatory pricing issue comes up every time there is a peak season and disappears every time there is a lean season," Mr Singh told NDTV. In the last 10 years, he said, airlines have been losing money.

"If airlines were really indulging in predatory pricing, you would have seen them making bumper profits and that's clearly not the case," he added.

Aviation regulator DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation) recently conducted a study that shows airfares have come down over the last one year by 15-20 per cent."

Mr Singh, who prevented Kalanidhi Maran-owned Spicejet -- an airline he had originally promoted in 2005 - from going bust last December, said airlines must address the concerns raised by the Prime Minister but maintained that airfares were a dynamic concept.

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"You can get fares for as low as Rs 1500 in certain months and of course, as demand peaks, fares will go up," he said. "If you book early, even on the Dubai-Delhi or Dubai-Mumbai sector, you have fares as low as Rs 1,500 or Rs 2,000," Mr Singh told NDTV.

Last week, junior minister for aviation Mahesh Sharma told NDTV that the Prime Minister was concerned about high air fares and wanted airlines to pass on the benefits of low fuel costs - a 40% drop over the past one year -- to the passengers.

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"We will be convening a meeting of the airlines soon to convey about airfares and predatory pricing," the minister had said.

The Spicejet chief, however, maintains that airfares have come down and it is showing in the airline's load factor. "We have been carrying loads in excess of 92 per cent and part of that has been because we have reduced fares to make more people fly," he added.