IndiGo and Jet Airways have launched a new sales strategy of allowing customers to buy air tickets through credit cards with payments stretched out over equated monthly instalments (EMIs) of two months.

With jet fuel prices shooting through the roof and fierce competition in the aviation market, the two airlines have taken a leaf out of the book of mobile phone companies, which have tied-up with banks to offer handsets on EMIs through credit card purchases. 

Both IndiGo and Jet Airways have tied-up with HDFC, Citibank and ICICI Bank to offer their passengers an option to pay fares in two instalments. 

The two carriers, which between them command as much as 51 per cent of India's aviation market, have been giving a tough time to rival airlines such as Air India.

Sources said other airlines too had tried to tie-up with the credit card companies (the banks) but the deal could not work out as the latter found the business unviable. The flip-side of the EMI option through credit cards payments is that it carries a hefty amount of 14 per cent additional service tax charged on tickets by banks besides one per cent charged as processing fee by the two carriers.

The passengers get a two-month period to pay the instalments but have to cough up 15 per cent more on the ticket. "We wanted the banks to offer interest-free EMIs the same way they offered in the case of mobile phone handsets, but the banks did not accept our deal," said an industry official.

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