Air travel is cheaper than a train journey. Hyperbole? Not really. It happened

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and is still happening in parts of Europe and may happen in India too, though there are riders.

The International Consulting Economists’ Association, the London-based group of independent consultants, offers a solution on how. “Higher seating density and no business class reduces per seat cost by at least 16%. Aircraft utilisation is also higher. Besides, the low cost airlines operate with higher load factors (fewer empty seats) so their costs per revenue passenger kilometre are even lower. If planned properly, low cost airlines can replace rail travel to a great extent,” said ICEA spokesman Simon Smith.

“The European low-cost carriers have done it by introducing high seating density and load factors, uniform aircraft types (usually the 737-300), direct booking (internet/call centre - no sales commissions), no frills such as “free” food, lounges or ‘air miles’, simple systems of yield management (pricing), use of secondary airports to cut charges and turnaround times,” ICEA said.

In India, a fare tussle between railways and low-cost airlines has started recently. Air Deccan had introduced airfares almost equalling the AC II-tier train fares, followed by similar response from Indian Airlines, Jet and Sahara. They slashed rates and started advanced purchase schemes (apex), resulting in up to 30 to 40 per cent slashed fares for apex fares compared with original prices. Then came Kingfisher Airlines, followed by SpiceJet and GoAir, Paramount and IndiGo. Yamuna Air or Kerala Airways have already filed flight plans. Introduction of dynamic pricing for passenger fares by former railway minister Lalu Prasad was aimed at competing with low-cost airlines.

“If low-cost airlines are benchmarked against few particular classes of trains, they could be cheaper. If it has to sustain it needs infrastructure like low-cost airports and subsidies, tax sops and relief in fuel surcharge,” said Bhawna Agarwal of yatra.com.

“Railway passengers do not switch over to air travel on a regular basis. This is not a trend. It happens only when there are discounts and special schemes,” she said.

Raajeev Batra, executive director at KPMG, said air travel getting cheaper than train is still a ‘bright wish list’. Even low cost airlines can only replace AC Ist class.

Batra says: “Rail travel is largely subsidised. The duty structure of diesel is very low. What if air travel actually becomes cheaper? Would railways permit this? Learn it from Europe.