Tuesday, July 19 2005 19:24 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Toeing the line taken by its competitors, including Indian Airlines, Air Sahara today (July 19, 2005) announced the launch of fare buckets while doing away with its advance purchase (APEX) schemes, claiming that the new system would lower airfares by 20 to 70 per cent.

"We are introducing this new fare structure replacing the APEX and last-minute fare schemes," Air Sahara's executive vice president Alok Sharma told sources in New Delhi.

The new system called 'Solar Fares' will do away with restrictions relating to advance purchase as well as those imposed during cancellation of APEX tickets, he said.

This would mean that a passenger can now purchase a ticket for any flight and get a major discount - provided seats on the low fare buckets are available. There would be seven levels of fares, including the normal fare.

Besides lowering fares purchased in rupees, the dollar fare would also be lowered by 20 to 60 per cent.

Elaborating, Sharma said the 30-day APEX fare on the Delhi-Bangalore sector was Rs 5,828, whereas the lowest fare bucket on this sector would be Rs 3,555. "There is a 71 per cent drop in the lowest fare on Kolkata-Hyderabad sector than the lowest APEX fare on that route", he said.