DGCA issues fresh directives on fares
The Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has issued fresh directives to airlines asking them to lower certain exorbitant fares shown on their websites besides giving an explanation on why certain high fares were being charged, to give a clear fare break-up under various heads (such as basic fares, fuel surcharge) and to put the fares in a passenger-friendly format on airline websites by removing unnecessary abbreviations. The DGCA has issued a fresh deadline to airlines that this should be done by 5 pm on Friday. Top aviation sources also said that analysis of the tariff charts of all airlines had shown that one particular private airline was charging significantly more than the other airlines.
“It is not the job of the government to micro-manage fares. The government is not against flexible pricing. But when abnormally high fares are being charged, the government can certainly ask the airlines why such high fares are being charged and can order them to take corrective action. That is what is being done,” top government sources said.
Sources also said that as per the number of seats available per month in all scheduled domestic carriers and the number of passengers who travelled in October and November (which was admittedly high), demand had still not outstripped supply. Some of the private airlines had argued earlier that fares should be determined only by demand and supply.
As already reported in this newspaper on Thursday, the DGCA had received feedback on Wednesday that some of the airlines had put exorbitant fares on their tariff charts in certain sectors and was expected to order airlines to take corrective measures.
The DGCA had also received feedback that the fares were not put up on airline websites in a passenger-friendly format and that there were too many abbreviations that were confusing the passengers.
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