Air Deccan’s new game plan
Low cost carrier Air Deccan will launch a campaign from September 19 to become the number one airline not only in terms of market share, but also being the best in the country, with focus on on-time performance.
It will offer a free ticket if the flight is delayed beyond three hours, except due to fog in December and January.
Announcing the campaign, named `WOW’, here on Saturday, Air Deccan Managing Director G. R. Gopinath, and Chief Operating Officer Warwick Brady, told reporters that the airline had become the second largest scheduled carrier (21.2 per cent market share) next only to Jet Airways (31.2 per cent). Before becoming the leader, Air Deccan intended to become the best airline and, hence, the campaign, they said.
During the last three months, 98 per cent of departures were within one hour of the schedule, Capt. Gopinath said. He urged the Director General of Civil Aviation to post on its website the monthly report on the on-time performance of all airlines to dispel the bogey that low cost airlines were not keeping schedules.
A law prohibiting predatory competition by other airlines to kill low cost airlines on the lines of European countries was needed, Capt. Gopinath said.