Fly With Air India If Rajdhani Ticket Not Confirmed: Indian Railways

At the time of writing this blog, fare for New Delhi to Mumbai as on November 6th is:

Mumbai Rajdhani train, AC 2 class: Rs 4,105/- (time taken: 15 hours, 50 minutes)

Go Air Flight leaving at 10.45 AM, economy class: Rs 4,053/- (time taken: 2 hours, 10 minutes)

As you can clearly see, the difference in fares for train and airways has blurred so much, that train fare is now more than airfare.

And Railways wants to capitalize on this, in a strange yet logical move.

As per reports coming in, Rajdhani passengers whose tickets haven’t got confirmed, can now travel in Air India flight, without paying any difference.

Will this proposal work? Does it makes sense?

Indian Railways: Fly With Air India If Rajdhani Ticket Unconfirmed

This proposal has been mooted by Ashwani Lohani, who is the Chairman of Railways Board. And the idea came to him while he was heading Air India as Chairman last year.

The basic premise of this offer was to utilize Air India’s vacant seats by accommodating Railways passengers whose tickets are unconfirmed. This way both Railways and Air India can optimally utilize their resources, and the passenger can travel as well.

Lohani has directly offered this proposal to Air India, and has said,

“If AI approaches us with this proposal, we will accept it.”, adding, “AC-II Rajdhani fares are more or less similar to air fares.”

Lohani is known as the “turnaround man” for this revolutionary approach to turn around Govt. owned departments with sharp tactical prowess.

This idea seems logical if we compare the tariffs of both Rajdhani and Air India, as shown above. However, the same idea seems illogical, if we question why train fares are so high in the first place.

Will This Idea Be Accepted?

If a person is getting air-tickets at a cheaper price, then why will he opt for Rajdhani, which takes a whole day to travel?

However, the idea is being viewed with respect, and people are optimist.

An unnamed Air India insider said,

“A benefit of having a government-owned airline… (is that) railways can transfer its unconfirmed premium passengers to state-owned AI. Lohani’s idea is very good. But can railways do the same with a private AI or any other private airline without facing charges of benefitting them?”

Whereas Senior IAS officer Rajiv Bansal, who is currently Chairman of Air India has said that no official proposal has been sent by Railways yet.

He said,

“This is the first time I am hearing of such a thing. There is difference in train and air fares…”

Do you think that instead of matching the travel tickets, Indian Railways should reduce the price of tickets, and make train travel more affordable?

Do let us know your opinions by commenting right here!