Airlines are finding new ways to cock a snook at the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on its new refund rules for cancelled tickets. Under the rules notified last week, airlines have to pay back the entire fuel and congestion surcharge as well as service fee to passengers cancelling their bookings on time. So, ingenious airlines have started hiking their ‘base fares’ where they have flexibility on the quantum of refund instead of building the hikes on surcharges.

Leading low-cost carrier SpiceJet has taken the first step in this direction by saying it would not increase fuel surcharge in the wake of an 18.5 per cent rise in aviation turbine fuel (ATF) this month. Instead, it has decided to hike the base fares by Rs 300 on short-haul (less than 750 km) flights and Rs 550 on long-haul flights. Jet, Kingfisher-Deccan and Air India-Indian have, however, increased the fuel surcharge component.

“As per the new norms notified by DGCA, we have told airlines they can refuse to refund base fares on cancelled tickets. They have to, however, refund all surcharges and fees imposed on tickets,” said Arun Mishra, joint secretary in the civil aviation ministry in-charge of DGCA. “We expect carriers to start moving surcharges into the base fares as a result of these new norms.”

The fuel surcharge imposed by most airlines ranges from Rs 2,250 to Rs 2,900 for short and long-haul flights, respectively. Additional passenger service fees (Rs 225) and congestion surcharges (Rs 150) take the total ‘taxes and fees’ on each ticket up to Rs 2,625 and Rs 3,275, respectively.

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