Air Deccan¡¯s expensive slack season route

At Rs 8.75 per passenger km, Air Deccan’s newly begun service connecting Jamshedpur with Kolkata is one of the most expensive items being served on its slack season menu. Not bad for a service that operates between two and five in the afternoon.

A one-way flight takes one hour and five minutes.

The fastest trains to and from Howrah take three. But ‘daylight saving’ trains, which run pretty much all through the night, might prove to be a better proposition for Tata Steel weekenders and vacationers.

An A/c two-tier sleeper for the 250-km rail journey costs only Rs 500 compared with Deccan’s Rs 1,750.

With special Tata Nagar quotas on most trains, online reservations are not a problem. One strong point operating in Deccan’s favour is that rail travel in that part of the country does not have a home-delivery advantage. Traversing the approach road to Howrah Bridge and getting across it can take up to an hour even at the stroke of midnight.

However, catering solely to Tata employees flying on business might not generate the required volumes. So, Deccan needs to scan the horizons for competitive pressures, specially now when there is as yet no competition in sight.