Price of Cheap Air Tickets Soars As DGCA Says All Is Fine

For all the airlines to operate in India, it is mandatory to provide to DGCA information about the price band within which these would be offering their flight tickets to the customers. While the airlines supposedly strive to provide cheap air tickets, it might not be the case in reality always. India has liberalized the aviation sector and allowed the private bodies to operate airlines.

 However, it has not yet allowed the foreign direct investment in the sector. The entry of private players was allowed for reasons of catering to the increasing demand of flights in the domestic sector and for developing a healthy competitive playing ground.

However, airlines operating in Indian conditions have often flown into rough weather due to a number of challenges arising out of environmental factors which many of the carriers find difficult to operate in. The high rates of taxation on aviation fuel, a generally price-sensitive market and labor-management issues have all led to exit of many carriers from domestic operations, leaving only a few in the fray. This has reduced the competition and also led to reduction in the number of seats available to the people. These market conditions have led to situations of less supply and high demand which has contributed to increase in air fares as compared to same period last year. Even the low-cost carriers have revised the prices of their tickets upwards substantially as compared to last year.

The steep increase has led to DGCA looking into the matter. It has been found on random checking that the airlines are still operating in the price-band which they had submitted to the DGCA. Earlier, the DGCA had asked the carriers to reduce the prices of tickets since the prices of oil had come down but there was no marked reduction in air fares. DGCA has been acting as a watchdog to ensure that the flight booking does not become prohibitively expensive for travelers with the curtailment of flights by Air India and Kingfisher.