Air Deccan, the Bangalore-based low-cost airline, has announced that it will reduce fares by 20 per cent on its long-haul sectors.

The announcement comes at a time when its competitors like Jet Airways and Air Sahara announced that they will increase their fares by 10 per cent to meet the rising fuel costs.

• IA, Jet, Sahara to hike fares by 10%

According to Capt. G R Gopinath, managing director of Air Deccan, an increase in the number of passengers as a result of the reduction in fares will offset the cost of the increase in cost of Air Turbine Fuel.

Gopinath added that the airline is already offering fares that were nearly 55 per cent lower than that offered by other airlines.

With the announcement to cut fares by another 20 per cent on its long-haul flights, Air Deccan has once again committed itself to making air travel economically viable for passengers.

Gopinath feels that as the airline would increase its fleet in the coming days which would result in further reduction of passenger fares. Curently, Air Deccan operates out of 22 airports in the country.

The new "last day" fare for Bangalore-Delhi sector is Rs 5,200, which is a reduction of Rs 1,400 from the old fare of Rs 6,600. The new fares for Bangalore-Mumbai is Rs 3,400 (old fare Rs 4,400), Mumbai-Delhi Rs 3,400 (Rs 4,400), Delhi-Hyderabad Rs 4,000 (Rs 5,700), Delhi-Chennai Rs 4,500 (Rs 6,600) and Delhi-Guwahati Rs 4,200 (Rs 5,600).