Will Indian Travelers Welcome AirAsia With Open Arms?

Sunday, 8th June 2014 at 04:45am

The answer to this nagging question has been determined after the launch of the airline's inaugural flights last June 12.

Judging on the result of its inaugural promo offers last week, it was overwhelming to find that within 10 minutes of the promo period, the first flight was sold out instantly. What's more? Within 48 hours, all the 25,000 seats offered on sale, were sold out as well.

When Mittu Chandilya was personally handpicked by Tony Fernandes to be at the helm of the newest airline venture in India, the former often boasted about the airline's revolutionary business strategy in its battle to win the competition. And indeed, he didn't only walk the talk, but he even surprised the local travel industry with the result of the airline's seat sale way ahead of the June 12 launch.

AirAsia's business model has been a riddle to others how is it able to sell those tickets that low yet profitable.

The strategy is very simple in fact. The draw is a low base fare. The airline only charges passengers the seat accommodation with the low base fare. Everything else comes for a certain fee. Revolutionary? Certainly not outside the Indian soil.

No Indian airlines do what AirAsia has done for years in its entire history. Indian low-cost carriers act like full-service airlines, only that their tickets are lower. AirAsia dares to be different and it wants to introduce to India what a low-cost travel should have been.

But would it be easy to sell base fare tickets to Indian travelers who are used to free 15kg check-in baggage among other frills?

AirAsia has tried the same strategy not just once (in its home turf) but several times in other markets where it established local subsidiaries such as in Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines. Just like their mother unit in Malaysia, overseas subsidiaries are equally successful in their respective sphere of influence.

AirAsia India will show to Indian customers the true low-cost, no-frills travel. It will educate Indian travelers how air travel could actually be an enjoyable activity, not burdened with so many frills that they don't actually need. Thus, they offer low base fare that each traveler should learn from now on about traveling, especially via short distances.

The fast take-up of all the 25,000 tickets offered on sale within the 48-hour period is phenomenal for an airline whose integrity is yet to be tested. That only shows that Indian travelers welcome AirAsia's entry more than with open arms.

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