Low cost airlines are unfazed by the fare cuts announced by Lalu across all air conditioned coaches. According to them, journey time is a critical factor that makes things weigh heavily in favour of low cost carriers (LCC).“We do not consider Railways, at any price, to be a direct price competitor due to the vast difference in travel time between the two options,” said Bruce Ashby, president and CEO, IndiGo. “We do not foresee making any pricing changes as a result of the initiative announced by the Railways.”According to Jeh Wadia, managing director, Go Air, “The concession announced in today’s Railway budget are a reflection of shifting market trends and consumers’ preference towards air travel. The phenomenal growth recorded by the Indian aviation sector in the past year of 33 per cent, has clearly led the decision makers in the Railway ministry to take a hard look at making rail fares more realistic to the common man.”Siddhant Sharma, executive chairman, Spice Jet reiterated the shorter journey time advantage LCCs had. “The fare cuts translate to Rs 30-80 drop in prices on a Delhi-Mumbai sector, which is too low to mitigate the time difference between the journeys — 2 hours versus 17 hours,” Sharma told The Indian Express.He added that Spice Jet had noted that the ministry has announced high speed trains on some short haul routes and would accordingly avoid these sectors.
