Wadias-promoted budget carrier GoAir on Wednesday launched a new fare plan having lower cancellation charges and no rescheduling fees, which the company expects will contribute about 10 per cent to its revenue this year.

The new plan, named GoFlexi Fare, would be available on all its routes, GoAir Managing Director Jeh Wadia said in a statement.

Under the new plan, the passenger would be able to make unlimited changes in its travel itinerary free of cost. Besides, GoAir has cut the cancellation changes to Rs 200 on all GoFlexi bookings.

According to analysts covering aviation sector, with the new plan GoAir is seeking a competitive edge over other low-cost airlines, which levy rescheduling and cancellation charges of Rs 500-750 on their passengers. This might lead to similar or other competitively priced plans by its rivals as well, they said.

The analysts said GoAir is targeting frequent-flying business passengers, such as traders and executives, with the new plan. It is not the leisure travellers or occasion-flying customers making frequent changes to their schedule, but the frequent fliers who bring in bigger chunk of revenue for airlines and hence the strategy could help GoAir, they said.

GoAir said it expects GoFlexi Fares to contribute 10 per cent revenue growth during the current year. "Our GoFlexi Fare is aimed at providing passengers the flexibility to modify their travel itinerary as per their individual needs without burdening their budgetary allocations," Wadia said.

The new plan comes on the heels of a massive flight operations expansion programme by GoAir in November 2007. Wadia said that GoAir has added morning, afternoon and evening connections in Mumbai and Delhi to connect the two metro cities to key business and leisure destinations like Bangalore, Goa, Hyderabad and Chennai as part of its flight operations strategy.

GoAir said its GoFlexi bundle allows cancellations or rescheduling to be made up to two hours prior to scheduled time of flight departure. A passenger booked under GoFlexi Fare will not be charged the transaction fee applicable for re-booking a confirmed GoAir ticket.

The passenger will only have to pay the difference in fare amount between the original booked fare and the applicable fare of the revised booking. In case, the new fare is lower than the originally booked fare, the difference in fare amount will be retained in the passengers' credit account with the airline for utilisation within six months period.

"Backed by augmentation in flight operations and a smart pricing strategy, the airline has been consistently recording highest load factors in the Indian aviation industry since March 2007," the company said.

GoAir has been recording average load factors of about 83 per cent and its market share has jumped to 4.2 per cent, it added.