High-flyers choose to travel cheap

Bangalore: If you find Finance Minister P Chidambaram, Wipro chief Azim Premji, or Infosys head NR Narayana Murthy’s wife Sudha sitting next to you on your friendly low-cost carrier, don’t be surprised. These high-flyers have taken to no-frills airlines not just for economic reasons, but also for the convenience of better schedules and network.
Ramesh Emani, product engineering services head of Wipro Technologies, for instance, swears by the budget carrier SpiceJet.
TTK Prestige Limited chairman TT Jagannathan does not think twice before booking tickets on Air Deccan whenever he is travelling to Dehradun or Coimbatore. On the Pune route, he invariably hops on a SpiceJet flight.
Dictates from company heads asking executives to compulsorily travel by budget carriers are also boosting traffic on these airlines. The percentage of corporate travellers on these airlines has shot up from a mere 10-15 to over 30.
03/07/06 Praveena Sharma/Daily News & Analysis

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