Airline fares still sky high

MiD DAY finds that DGCA circular and Praful Patel's strongu00a0statements on arbitrary fare hikes have left airlines unmoved

Unmoved by a DGCA circular and Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel's strong statement on cracking down on arbitrary hikes in fares, airlines continue to keep airfares sky high.

The DGCA circular followed a MiD DAY report on fares being sky high during festivals (Airfares go through the cloud, MiD DAY, November 13).



We were the first to report on this and Patel had subsequently remarked, "These kind of exorbitant fares can simply not be allowed, we are going to take the strictest possible action."

However, a check on airfares of various airlines for the busy Mumbai-Delhi and Mumbai-Bangalore sectors reveals that the fares continue to remain high. The following return fares for flights leaving today were retrieved from the airlines' websites:

Traffic
Delhi and Bangalore are the busiest routes from Mumbai and see the maximum number of flights being operated in the domestic sector. More than hundred flights on the Delhi route and almost three dozen flights on the Bangalore route (including return) are linked with the city of Mumbai.

Review
Praful Patel issued a statement yesterday that DGCA has been serious about preventing sudden fare escalation (by some scheduled Indian carriers). He said that officials of the Civil Aviation Ministry and the DGCA would meet soon to review the issue.

Circular
The DGCA circular noted that insufficient and inadequate information was available in the public domain on airfares.

It said that reports of airlines charging excessively high tariff for flights across their network during the high demand period was "causing lot of inconvenience to the travelling public and drawing adverse comments on airfares".

It had, therefore, asked every airline to furnish a copy of the route-wise tariff across its network in various fare categories, in the manner it is offered in the market, to DGCA on the first day of every calendar month.

The regulator also asked the airlines to publish airfares on their websites or in daily newspapers on a regular basis.

Delhi
Kingfisher: Rs 15,500-18,000
Jet Airways: Rs 18,000-34,000
Air India: Rs 18,000-30,000
SpiceJet: Rs 13,000-14,000
Go Air: Rs 16,000-25,000
IndiGo: Rs 14,000-19,000

Bangalore
Kingfisher: Rs 9,000-12,600
Jet Airways: Rs 12,000-25,000
Air India: Rs 10,000-25,000
SpiceJet: Rs 9,000-12,000
Go Air: Rs 8,000-10,000
IndiGo: Rs 6,500-9,000