Domestic airlines will replace railways as the preferred mode for long-distance travel in the next three years, a blueprint prepared by the Ministry of Railways has revealed. According to the 2019-2020 projection for the sector, railways may lose a huge portion of its upper-class clientele to airlines, The Indian Express reported on Tuesday.

The blueprint pointed out that carriers hold a definite advantage of speed and time of travel over railways, but that trains have competitive pricing in their favour.

“It is essential that Indian Railways addresses the two key value propositions of airlines passenger business – price and speed – immediately to sustain its core business in the passenger segment in the future,” the plan said.

According to the blueprint, 25% of domestic air travel happens over inter-city distances within 500 km. This contradicts the assumption that air travel is popular only for distances between 800 km and 1,000 km.

“With the proliferation of airports into small towns and massive thrust of low-cost airlines to tier II and tier III cities, there is a clear pattern emerging of air being preferred for even shorter hauls by passengers,” it said.