SpiceJet says it sold 220,000 seats under Re 1 offer

SpiceJet sold 220,000 seats on Tuesday with eager customers lapping up cheap tickets with a base fare of Rupee one.

Typically, the airline sells 40,000 seats daily.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation, has however, directed the airline to stop the three day sale saying it was misleading flyers and inventory on offer in discount scheme was limited. An airline spokesperson said inventory under rupee one fare was anyway over and its Rs 1,499 fare scheme is available. The airline also denied claims it indulged in predatory pricing.

“We had 220,000 bookings today, by far the highest ever for SpiceJet in a single day. This is despite the website crashing as visits increased by 3000%, when we had expected and planned for 4-5x increase only. Lots of people benefited from the Re 1/- fare (plus taxes), and a lot of tickets sold at higher fares too. Now we need to continue to delight the customers who have booked and will fly on us,” SpiceJet’s chief operating officer Sanjiv Kapoor wrote in an email to employees.

However, sector analysts say that there was a risk as the airline would have lost on high yield current week bookings as the server crashed.

“It helped forward bookings and generated cash but passengers who were looking to travel yesterday or today were unable to book on SpiceJet and opted for other airlines,” an analyst remarked.