Avnish Chhabria

Fasten Your Seatbelts. It's a Low-cost Ride: Strategy and Economics: Budget Airlines (India) Avnish Chhabria

India, home to one-sixth of the world?s population, is quickly becoming one the world?s economic engines. Its bureaucratic and outdated regulatory policies have been reformed resulting in a four-fold increase in the number of scheduled airlines and a five-fold increase in the number of aircrafts operated. This book critically evaluates the Budget Airline phenomenon and the wider social changes its cheap flights have brought about. It considers their competitive strategies, based on cost-leadership and product differentiation with an eye on the future prospects of these carriers. A survey conducted in India investigated the acceptance of these carriers and assessed the sensitivity of passengers to a change in fare and analyzed the factors/attributes that would encourage them to distinguish between LCCs. A perceptive analysis of the problems, pertaining to infrastructural bottlenecks leading to delays/cancellation and the low fare dispersion between carriers, sheds light on the need for Budget airlines to create value. Customer satisfaction outshines the most effective way for LCCs to gain market share, steal a march on its competitors and, with time, be able to sustain its existence