Top airlines charging fees even on direct ticket sales

New Delhi: At a time when jet fuel prices have come crashing down and people expect airfares to drop, India's full service airlines have done
the opposite — charge more. While the national carrier had started levying a steep transaction fee across all its ticket vending mediums from November 1 itself, Jet Airways was so far charging the new cess only on tickets sold at its city and airport offices. Now, it has also started levying this on tickets off its website from the weekend, confirmed its spokesperson.
Which means, there's no getting away from paying a surcharge exactly similar to the fee that agents now charge — Rs 350 and Rs 500 for economy and business class domestic flights, and between Rs 1,200 to Rs 10,000 for international ones — even if one buys tickets directly from airlines. Kingfisher is likely to follow suit.
Airlines say they have taken this step under pressure from travel agents who feared that without this step, tickets sold directly would cost less and that agencies would lose business. This additional cost comes at a time when full service airlines are under pressure to cut fares as jet fuel has got cheaper.
Low cost carriers, who don't levy such a steep transaction fee, point out they had neither raised base fares nor fuel surcharge in the last couple of rounds of jet fuel price hikes.
While Indian carriers — collectively expected to lose $2 billion this fiscal — cite economic reasons for not being able to cut fares, a sharp drop in number of passengers flying this year could force them to take some steps.
10/11/08 Times of India

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General Nov 2008