Airlines cock a snook at Patel,keep fares exorbitant

Despite a tough posturing by government,the airlines remain defiant. A round trip on Delhi-Mumbai economy ticket priced at Rs 35,999,on country’s leading airline Jet Airways tops the fare advertised for the launch of its non-stop Delhi-Milan flight,making air travel within India way more expensive than flying to exotic locales abroad. Similarly,’low-fare’ carriers like Spice Jet,IndiGo and Go Air too are asking for up to Rs 20,000 for a return journey on the country’s busiest sector,Delhi-Mumbai,if tickets are booked at a day’s notice.

“The fare charged by airlines are excessive. A fair price on the Delhi-Mumbai sector would be between Rs 6,000-7,000 one way,” said an aviation consultant,on condition of anonymity. “Even though government can impose action if airlines’ business practices are not conducive to customer interest,they can not prescribe fares or price bands,” the consultant said.

On some of the other busy sectors,like Delhi-Bangalore,spot booking on a round trip on any of the full service carriers like Jet Airways,Air India (Domestic) and Kingfisher could cost upto Rs 49,000. While Spice Jet is charging up to Rs 40,000,rest of the low-fare carriers have priced it between Rs 15,000 and Rs 20,000. Defending the fares,Go Air CEO Kaushik Khona said,“Where are the high prices? The prices are not high at all. In fact they are down from one-way fare of Rs 35,000 charged by some of the full service carriers a fortnight ago.” Protesting against any regulation of fares,Khona said that any such move would be a throwback to regulatory regime,which is “not acceptable”. The airline are scheduled to meet aviation regulator,Directorate General of Civil Aviation,next week to discuss the issue of pricing.

DGCA had issued a circular a week ago,asking the air lines 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.” However,airlines have chosen to maintain silence as of now,and have sought additional time saying that there is no clarity. DGCA had also said that “significant and noticeable change” in the established tariff already filed (by an air line),should be reported to the DGCA “within 24 hours of effecting such changes”.