New Delhi: The government has imposed a price cap on flight tickets amid IndiGo operation fiasco that sky-rocketed flight tickets on some routes, adding
to the vows of already passengers already dealing with travel crisis. The Civil Aviation Ministry in a notice said that it has come to the notice of the Central Government that disruptions in flight operations of one of the scheduled airlines have resulted in flight cancellations, leading to capacity constraints and unreasonable surge in the fares on number of sectors. Therefore, in the public interest, it is hereby decided that domestic scheduled airlines shall not charge the fares from the passengers more than the limits specified limit. According to the government notification, an airline cannot charge more than:
- Rs 7500 for distance upto 500 Kms
- Rs 12000 for distance 500-1000 Kms
- Rs 15000 for distance 1000-1500 Kms
- Rs 18000 for distance above 1500 Kms
The government said that these fare limits are exclusive of applicable UDF, PSF and Taxes. These fare limits are not applicable for Business class and to RCS UDAAN flights.
- The fares limits are applicable for travel until the fares stabilise or till further review.
- These fare limits shall be applicable for all forms of bookings, regardless of whether the purchase is made directly through the airline's official website or through various online travel agents' platforms.
- The airlines shall maintain air ticket availability across all buckets for travel and if need be consider capacity enhancement on sectors characterised by surge in demand.
For five days in a row, IndiGo, the country's largest airline, has cancelled hundreds of flights, primarily due to crew woes. With a lesser number of flights, airfares on certain routes witnessed a massive surge.
Taking a serious note of the situation, the civil aviation ministry said it has invoked regulatory powers to ensure fair and reasonable fares across all affected routes.
The limits will be in place till the situation stabilises, the ministry said in a statement.
"An official directive has been issued to all airlines mandating strict adherence to the fare caps that have now been prescribed," it said.
Specific details about the airfare caps could not be immediately ascertained.
With inputs from PTI
