After being crowned as the world’s fastest growing aviation market in 2016, the Indian aviation sector has seen a steep rise with a 23.18% growth in domestic air passenger traffic in 2016.
The number of passengers carried by domestic airlines in 2016 was 998.88 lakhs as compared to 810.91 lakh in 2015. This growth was primarily driven by rising per capita income which has resulted from growing working population. With the low cost carriers constituting ~70% of the market share, it is quite obvious that the Indian airline passengers are price sensitive and prefer low prices over convenience.
Given the customer’s preference, based on the database we have, we have come up with a few hacks that would help our customers in saving some moolah when they plan to book their next flight with us.
- Day of Booking
The airline ticket prices are generally lower during weekdays and increase as the weekend approaches. The best day to book a ticket is Monday where the price is 2.41% lower than average and 5.2% lower as compared to a Saturday. The other good days to book tickets are Wednesday, Tuesday and Thursday (1.95%, 1.45% and 1.15% lower than average).
2. Time of Booking
The tickets should be booked 1–3 months in advance to get the best prices. Most of the bookings in India happen less than 30 days from the date of journey mainly due to last minute plans, however it might not be the best time to book tickets. So the next time you think of going to a trip, it is better to plan it ahead of time. Time is money indeed!
3. Hour of Booking
The early risers and the late sleepers stand to gain in this respect. The best time to book the tickets are 03:00–10:00 and 21:00–24:00 in order to obtain the best prices. The prices seem to spike up by approximately 20% during mid-day/afternoon as compared to the wee hours in the morning.
4. The magic of low cost carriers
In order to travel cheap, there has to be a trade off with convenience. If you are looking for cheaper fare, prefer low cost carriers as opposed to a full service carrier. No doubt the full service carriers offer add on facilities such as meals, more leg space and better service, but in return their fares are ~20% higher than that of low cost carriers for the same route on an average. Some examples of low cost carriers are Indigo, Spicejet, Go Air and Asia whereas the examples of full service carriers are Jet Airways, Air India and Vistara. So, if you want a convenient travel go for a full service carrier, however if you want lesser burn on your pocket, choose low cost carriers.
So the next time you book your flights, keep these 4 points in mind while booking your ticket and you might land up saving some more money apart from the best in class cashback that you already receive while booking your flight ticket at Paytm.
