The aviation ministry removed the lower and upper caps on domestic airfares across the country, allowing airlines to pick their own individual price ranges.
With the festive season right around the corner, you may have been planning a visit to your family or a long-weekend getaway somewhere in the country. If yes, you might want to slow down before making those flight bookings.
The Ministry of Civil Aviation, as per the latest report, has removed price cap on domestic airfares, giving airlines the flexibility to fix their individual flight ticket prices. The move has come after a span of 27 months and was earlier implemented when the pandemic hit India.
The MoCA had earlier imposed upper and lower limits of domestic airfares, with an intention to put airfare in check, when aviation services were resumed in May 2020. With the airfare caps implemented, the airlines were not supposed to charge a passenger less than INR2,900 (excluding GST) and more than INR8,800 (excluding GST) for domestic flights of less than 40 minutes. While the upper caps were to protect travellers from higher fares, the lower caps were intended to offer support to the airlines in maintaining their revenues.
“After review of the current status of scheduled domestic operations viz-a-viz passenger demand for air travel, it has been decided to remove the fare bands notified from time to time regarding the airfares with effect from August 31, 2022,” the aviation ministry stated in an order.
FAQs
What does it mean for domestic travellers?
Now, all domestic airlines have the freedom to decide fares on domestic routes and will no longer be required to regulate air tickets. In coming months, whether you, as a traveller, are able to save money or not entirely depends on where you wish to travel in India.
Why did the government implement these airfare caps?
“The decision to remove air fare caps has been taken after careful analysis of daily demand and prices of air turbine fuel (ATF). Stabilisation has set in, and we are certain that the sector is poised for growth in domestic traffic in the near future,” Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia tweeted clarifying the reason behind the step. As per the views of aviation experts, the airfares are expected to be stable. It might also happen that
Will flight tickets get cheaper or costlier?
Possibilities are that the airlines may gradually lower fares or offer sales to drive the demand and make more sales, which means airfares might go down in certain sectors while the popular sectors might see a rise in airfares.
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